Breach of contract †contract law Essay

Spanish Contract Law provides a broad notion of breach of contract for any behavior that departs from the specified behavior in the contract in any way (time, quality, substance, etc.) or is not specially justified on legal grounds (actions forbidden by the government are not breaches since they are justified on a legal ground). The general benchmark to determine breach is the contract agreed by the parties themselves, and not external notions. However, external notions are used in important situation such as the consumer’s market where the consumer’s expectations are the primary benchmarks to assess quality and performance since there is not an explicit contract. External notions are also important in other market, where a third party may have some duty or responsibility over the contract, and therefore, is responsible (at least in part) for any potential breach. The reason for breach does not exclude the breach. What matters is the breach. The analysis of breach takes place in objective terms. Subjective factors generally do not exclude breach, although they may affect remedies. In certain contractual areas, breach of duty and fault are generally required (professional contracts, management contracts: breach requires violation of a duty of care or a duty of loyalty). In professional contracts, the fault may be of a professional who was in contract with the firm, and in management contracts, it may be the fault of the manager. 2) Remedies: Spanish Contract Law provides a wide range of general remedies for breach of contract: †¢ Specific performance: the court forces the breacher to act as it was established in the contract. If for example, the contract stipulated that the promiser had to give the promisee a product of quality 2 and he delivers a good of quality 1, then as remedy the court force the promiser to deliver a good of quality 2. †¢ Damages: the court force the breacher to pay a certain amount of money  (damages) to the other party as compensation. It is a monetary remedy. The court calculate the amount to be paid. †¢ Liquidated damages: these are also monetary compensation, but with the difference that they are not calculated by the court, but they are instead specified in the contract itself. One example are the soccer players’ contracts, or sale contracts that specifies the amount to be paid for each day of delay. Other general remedies that we can find are: †¢ Termination: if a party suffers a breach, it can contract with another party and abandon its contractual obligation. If the breacher does not agree with this, court is necessary. †¢ Reduction of prices: in case of breach of a party, a general remedy is to reduce the price to equilibrate the contract. Generally, it is the aggrieved party who chooses the remedy to be imposed. 3) Specific performance: Specific performance is a remedy for breach characterized by the fact that a failed performance or departure from required action by the contract will be imposed upon breaching party. It is also characterized by several material variants of the remedy such as: forced delivery, forced action, injunction not to do, repair defective performance and replace non-conforming good. In the case of the injunction not to do, the court oblige the breacher not to do something, such as obliging a CEO to work for the competition if in the contract it was stipulated that he cannot. Specific performance conceptually includes repair and replacement of consumer goods. The main issue with specific performance, when it is feasible, is the issue of the balance of benefits and costs of the remedy. Specific performance implies that the breacher perform as the contract establishes. However, sometimes, the cost of this performance may be higher than the benefit in social welfare terms. Take the example of the mining firm, which has a contract with the owner of the land to mine for 10 years and then clean the land. When the 10 year pass, the firms breaches the contract and refuse to clean. The cost of cleaning the land is 20 millions, and the benefit for the  owner is 1 million. So if the court imposes a specific performance to firm, society will loose 19 millions. A good alternative would be to impose damages to the firm, which would be preferred by the owner, since an agreement between the firm and the owner will be reached that maximize the social welfare. In these cases, performance may be more costly than its value for promisee: performance may be ex post inefficient. There are both positive and negative features of specific performance as a remedy. As positive features, we can distinguish low informational requirements to apply remedy (avoids cost of error linked to estimating damages) and the party aggrieved by breach appears to be satisfied in its promissory expectation. As negative features, we find performance may be more costly than its value for promisee (performance may be ex post inefficient), requires a court order and takes time, for complex performances requires costly and difficult supervision by court and performance by a party forced to comply with contract may be perfunctory (lowest effort) at best. 4) Damages: Damages are understood as general remedies that can be applied to all types of contracts and breaches of contracts. It is a remedy defined in very broad terms: amount of money to compensate any harm suffered by the injured party as a consequence of any breach of contract. We can differentiate between two kinds of damages: expectation and reliance damages. This is why it is a remedy with a variable extension. Expectation damages: Expectation damages is the sum of money that will give the party damaged the same amount of welfare and utility than if the contract would not have been breached and the final result would have been attained. Therefore, the breach party would have to pay the aggrieved party an amount of money that would compensate for the harm caused and in addition an amount of money equal to the value of the performance for this party. There are however some problems with expectation damages since they are difficult to compute and some instances of moral hazard may appear. Those who seek for damages have to provide evidence of both the existence and amount of damages. This requirement has some exceptions in case of harm in re ipsa: illegitimate use of a productive good, deprivation of a productive good, and few other examples. Expectation damages is the general rule in Spanish Law for breach of contract. It is the damage measure that accompanies termination for breach and the replacement measure of specific performance. It is awarded when there is a breach of representations and warranties, advertising and promotional communications and in cases of pre-contractual fraud that are equivalent to breach of contracts. How can we compute expectation damages? When goods or services admit substitutes or cover transactions to avoid the negative consequences of the other party’s breach of contract, the price of these transactions is relevant. If the seller breaches the contract and the buyer has bought a good, generally fungible, then the expectation damages will be equal to the difference between the price of the substitute and the price established in the contract: Psub-Pc. If the buyer breaches the contract and the seller celebrates a cover sale the expectation damages would be equal to the difference between the price established in the contract and the price of the new sale: Pc-Psub. Other ways of computing expectation damages are the following: Market damages: (for fungible good with market price) buyer will receive expectation damages consisting of the difference between the market price when the breach of contract took place (Pm) and the contract price (Pc). Seller will receive the opposite difference. Expectation damages present some limitations that reduce it scope and amount. One of this limitations is the foreseeability rule. This rule state that the breacher should only be liable for the things that are foreseen or could have foreseen at the time of contracting and that are necessary  consequence of his failure to perform. For instance, if the foreseeable harm of a breach is 100 and the aggrieved party end up suffering a loss of 1000, the foreseeability rule states that damages will amount only to 100. The foreseeability rule gives incentives to give information in the time of contracting. Those who suffer from harm must declare the value of the performance. In tort law, there is no foreseeability rule, you pay the actual damage. Another limitation is the duty to mitigate damages: the aggrieved party is under the duty to mitigate damages that the other contracting party has caused with her / his breach of contract. Reliance damages: Reliance damages: sum of money that will give the party damaged the same amount of welfare and utility than if the contract would not have taken place (the initial situation). This is why reliance damages are generally lower than expectation damages. Reliance damages cover expenses for the injured party derived from concluding the contract, specific investments that the injured party has made in reliance of performance of the contract by the other party and opportunity costs. Limited assets: Damages do not always work well. Sometimes, individuals can bear the payment of these damages, and therefore, they will have incentives to reduce them. However, this is not always the case. When the breacher has not enough assets to pay damages up to the point of optimal care, damages do not work well, because people will not pay for the consequences of their acts, and therefore, their level of care will be the optimal according to what they can pay, and not what they should pay. This is known as judgement proof problem. Damages for pain and suffering: The traditional position of the Spanish Supreme Court and Spanish Courts is: †¢ To accept damages for pain and suffering for breach of contract †¢ To award damages for pain and suffering with a relative amplitude and generosity. †¢ To award damages for pain and suffering with several functions: †¢ To avoid the problems of calculating and justifying the amount of the damage award †¢ To compensate harm in personality rights (right to life, liberty, honor, etc.). †¢ To compensate non-patrimonial values joined to economic goods and rights (discomfort, inconvenience, disappointment, frustration) †¢ To punish intolerable or egregious behaviors of breach of contract. When an individual suffer harm, her utility decreases (she goes form point A to point B, but her utility function for money will not change). If this harm is economic, we can compensate this harm with money, which will leave her at point A again. However, the harm that an individual can suffer may be non-economic, and for the same amount of money her utility decreases (her utility function changes). Money cannot restore the initial utility (a huge amount would be needed). This is the case of pain and suffering (accident and death of a relative, discomfort, etc). This is why it is useless to take insurance for death, since it would not compensate the harm. The hairy hand example: What is the difference between expectation and reliance damage? Let’s look at an example. An individual was injured in his hand and lost 50% of his use. He entered in a contract with a doctor who promised to reestablish the hand to a 100% of use in exchange for quantity of money. Before the contract was made, the individual was situated in an indifference curve that related all the  combination of hand use and money that let the individual indifferent. We assume that the individual is willing to give up hand use for money. After the contract and operation, the individual was worse off, with 25% of use. What should the doctor pay as damage? If expectation damages are used, the doctor should pay the individual a quantity of money that together with the 25% of hand use leave him with the same utiity as if the contract had succeded and he had 100% of use (situate him in a higher indifference curve). If reliance damages are imposed, the doctor should pay the individual a quantit y of money that, together with the 25% of hand use, leave him with the same utility as if the contract did not take place, with 50% of hand use (situate him in the initial indifference curve). 5) Liquidated damages: Liquidated damages are damages for breach that are not determined ex post breach by a Court or arbitration panel, but ex ante by the contract parties themselves into the contract. Such possibility of â€Å"privately stipulated† remedies for breach is acknowledged by most legal systems, typically in the form of payment of money, although other possibilities may exist. They typically replace Court damages and they can be agreed as added penalty for breach. The most important issue is whether Courts are forced to enforce liquidated damages, or they may disregard, or reduce, the amount of the liquidated damages award. The reasons why Courts allow liquidated damages are: †¢ Freedom of contract †¢ A large liquidated damages clause may be necessary to induce promisee to find promise credible and the contract sustainable. †¢ Parties are in a better position than Courts to assess benefits and costs of determining a given amount. †¢ Liquidated damages compensate systematic underestimation of damages by Courts. If liquidated damages are higher than the expectation damages, then the court will apply the second ones. There are however some economic arguments that may lead to reduce or at least control the level of liquidated damages clauses: †¢ â€Å"Excessive† damages clauses resulting from incorrect predictions or forecasts about future outcomes. †¢ External shocks unforeseen by parties that produce an unexpected increase in the damages payment. †¢ True â€Å"uncertainty† about future costs for one party. †¢ Behavioral biases that lead party to underestimate the true adverse impact of a damages clause (the â€Å"deferred cost problem†): †¢ Over-optimism concerning future performance and costs (the example of the gym) †¢ Hyperbolic discounting of future outcomes We can see the liquidated damages as barriers to entry. An excessive amount of LD is beneficial for the parties to the detriment of a third party who  may bid for the services of breaching party. Promisor agrees to pay an amount larger than ED, in exchange of higher price. Promisee uses high liquidated damages to extract larger payment from a third party interested in performance by promisor: larger payment from third party increases the surplus to the contract parties, that is shared between them. Also, excessive payment of third party are made possible by excessive damages clauses, which reduce efficient entry by third parties, and prevents them from successfully bidding for promisor’s performance. That is why the goal of reducing â€Å"excessive† liquidated damages is not to protect the breaching party, but third-parties. Sometimes, excessive LD for signaling are unwanted, since an unforeseeable contingency may appear that will cause a breach in the contract. A pooling equilibrium may be more desirable than a separating one when the distortion caused by the penalty on the â€Å"good type† is large enough. 6) Termination: Among the general remedies for breach, the last one is termination (or rescission, or cancellation, as it may also be called in Common Law jurisdictions). This remedy entitles the aggrieved party to cancel the contractual relationship with the breaching party, eliminating the obligations arising from the terminated contract. Once the contract is terminated the parties should give back what was received under the contract, unless the goods are now in lawful possession of a third party. In this case, the value of the goods would replace the goods themselves. The elimination of the effects of the contract is retroactive: it is considered that the contract did not exist. Spanish courts have established that termination does not require a lawsuit. However, if the other party disputes the termination or its conditions, restitution would require a lawsuit. Courts do not determine termination, but declare whether termination was or not properly effected by the party. The most contested issue about termination is when is termination available as a remedy. It is clear that not every breach or non-performance allows the  aggrieved party to terminate, but a qualified breach (material or fundamental breach) is required. We can define it as follow: †¢ Relevance: the breach must affect the central obligations or duties under the contract and not merely ancillary or incidental duties. †¢ Duration: the breach should not be merely sporadic or transitory, but likely to be repeated or continuing. †¢ Importance: the breach must substantially affect the interests of the non-defaulting party. Termination does not go alone, it does not exclude damages, and in fact it is naturally accompanied by damages payment.

Red Riding Hood Essay

How would you categorize the point of view [e. g. , first-person, second-person (i. e. , â€Å"you†), third-person limited, third-person omniscient]? * Is the point of view consistent throughout the story (told from the same perspective), or does it shift at any points in the narrative? If so, make note of when and how those changes occur. ) * How does point of view shape your reading of the work? In what ways does it contribute to or detract from your reading of the work? * How does point of view relate to the story’s themes or content? Your initial post should be at least 150 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the text, and properly cite any references. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7. I chose to analyze â€Å"Little Red Riding Hood. The point of view is third person limited. The story is narrated as though the writer was watching over and retelling the story as it takes place. The point of view is consistent throughout its entirety. There is quoted dialogue from each character, especially when Little Red Riding Hood arrives at the Grandmother’s house and is comparing the features of the Wolf to the Grandmother. I struggled to remove the images I have stored in my mind from the storybook that I read of this over and over as a small child. I remember that in the picture-book the Wolf was drooling over Little Red Riding Hood because he was planning to eat her. The innocence of Little Red Riding Hood prevails as she continues to keep questioning Wolf about his features like the size of his hands, ears and eventually his mouth. I don’t know if it seems to change POV during this part of the story or if it because in my mind I no long hear a narrator’s voice. It may also be due to this being the climax of the story. I just felt it was important to note that instance as I read the story. I feel that third person limited point of view is a perfect way to tell this type of story as long as the author is able to portray the character’s nature well before the story is underway. For instance, if the reader is not informed that in some way that Little Red Riding hood is an innocent and compliant little girl (protagonist) and that the nature of a wolf (antagonist) is to kill and eat his prey by any means available, then the entire meaning may be misconstrued.

Barangay Banga Profile

We would like to lengthen our profound gratitude to Mr. Noberto Montecino for the chance he has given to us in conducting this study on the history of Brgy. Banga, Bayawan City. This effort would not have been possible without his reinforcement and reassurances of making this research a successful one. We would also like to extend our heartfelt appreciations to Hon. Amador Antique for his magnanimous and generous sharing of knowledge with regard on the past history of Brgy. Banga. Furthermore, we would like to thank our parents for their unending love, support, understanding and prayer as well as to our dearest friends who indeed help us in accomplishing this matter. Above all, we give our genuine gratefulness to the Father Almighty, the author of life and source of all knowledge and wisdom. Without Him, we know that we can never attain the greatest achievements of life. INTRODUCTION The research about the roots and development of Barangay Banga is done solely to inform the readers about how Barangay Banga came to be and how it grew into an industrialized Barangay as of today. Barangay Banga before is a vast plantation of Banga Trees, which belongs to the monocot group as Palm Tree. The Banga tree is best known before as a good material for flooring that is why it is mainly used by people. The Banga Central School of Brgy. Banga is one of the major contributions of the first Teniente del Barrio, Ceriaco Galon in the year 1940. He was the one who donated the lot for the construction of the said school. It is then a great help to the residents of Barangay Banga. Barangay Banga also has rice mills since one of the crops grown in the Barangay is â€Å"palay. † One functional Ice Plant is also located in Barangay Banga. It is also in Barangay Banga where one of the best and known subdivision of Bayawan City is located, the Lopez Village Subdivion. And near the Subdivion is a Chapel. One of the Sitios of Barangay Banga, Cabcabon, is soon to be the new City Site of Bayawan. A prestigious school, the Bayawan City Science and Technology Education Center, is also constructed in the said Sitio. It is also where the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology is also located. And now, the construction of the new City Hall and other important offices are now being initiated. Banga got its name from the vegetation known as Banga Tree which belongs to the monocot groups as Palm Tree. The history goes that, years ago the place is thickly populated by Banga Tree which many people used it for flooring their house. In a particular place a person cut down but he was warned by the folks not to cut those trees because the place where believed to be enchanted, but he insisted cutting the trees. After a few weeks the said person got sick and died from that circumstances, in every corner of the community believed that the death was due to the cutting of the Banga Tree.

New Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

New Terrorism - Essay Example This led to several groups who were a part of this era were specifically opposed to the government and political systems and focused on committing assassinations of those who were in power to overthrown the current system and to re-establish a different system. The rise of terrorism from the 1900s created the understanding of traditional terrorism, which was based on weapons such as guns that were used for assassinations. The motivations and strategies were always based on killing the leaders in power as well as the ability to overthrow specific powers. Most would separate themselves from society by different ethnic groups and through religious beliefs (Laqueur, 24: 1996). During the 1980s, the intensity of terrorism increased. The Cold War and the associations with international conflicts for the first time became the main conflict that was associated with terrorism. The main focus during this time was with state based terrorist groups who were taking part in guerrilla warfare, asso ciations with Civil Wars and which were creating specific statements against the government. During this time, there was a rise in small groups of terrorists that were interested in spreading a specific message across the state that opposed the government and system that was in conflict. The main initiative of these terrorist groups was based on finding ways to cause a level of destruction to the national governments while creating domestic problems in different regions. While some of these were based on domestic attacks to get international countries out of the country, the main objective was to work on attacking the current system and political affiliations that were in the country (Laqueuer, 25: 2006). The types of terrorism began to change after the... Even though there are several groups that use specific tactics that are upgraded and which have a specific mission, there are also similarities between the traditional and new groups. The first is based on the individualistic ideologies that are a part of terrorism. There is a known psychology which is related to terrorist groups which are based on specific personality disorders. Opposing groups to the government will act in a similar manner, despite the traditional or modern concepts used. In the traditional forms, this irrationality moved into attacking political leaders and creating assassinations, usually which was followed by delivering a message that the system needed to change. Today, the same commitment to delivering this message and to the irrationality of killing civilians to get a message across is the main agenda. The concept has led terrorist campaigns to be linked to the same irrationality and fanaticism throughout history and has altered the way in which all groups act in response to given situations. The concept of commitment to a message is one which is also driven by the concepts of how one begins to believe in the specific message and mission to be delivered as well as the fanaticism which is used to carry this out. In modern terrorism, most groups are religiously based and pride themselves on delivering a message from a sacred script which is ignored by political leaders and which is causing the destruction of specific systems.

Traditional Circus vs Contemporary Circus Essay

Traditional Circus vs Contemporary Circus - Essay Example The origins of contemporary circus (or "cirque nouveau") can be found in 70s. In this circus a separate story is told to the audience in a chain of different small performances, unlike a traditional circus, where no separate story was told. This new movement has not theoretical background and there is no a clear intention to be separated from a traditional circus. The main aim was to position a contemporary circus as a kind of incarnation from a traditional circus. For example, there is no total abandonment of the use of animals during performances, because animals are poor narrative means. In the contemporary circus animals are often used with success. There are different means to amaze the audience in the contemporary circus, because acrobatics, juggling or clown acts are often not unique for the audience and are not very fascinating. In accordance with the artists from one of the contemporary circuses: "Circus in general has its own tradition; but at the Cirque, we try to regroup and or add multiple disciplinary approaches to synergize the creation process. Every time we add a new collection, we have to capture the relationship between the information sources and the usage† (Spencer 2007, p. 23). In the contemporary circus the main emphasis is made on a story told to the audience through a number of different acts of performance instead of separate successive performances of jugglers, clowns or animals. There is more about topic in the modern circus and the spirit of modern times. Thus, the artists of the contemporary circus are able to appeal for the emotions and feelings of the audience by referring to the most critical themes, such as love, friendship, children et cetera. They develop a chain of their actions on the background of one common theme. There are no circus families performing in the contemporary circus, but rather conservatory-trained artists; character-driven acts are conveyed to the audience through a chain of narratives embodied in a series of successive acts of performance. The audience has the ability to sit in front of the stage and get involved in the story told by the contemporary circus. There is no ringmaster in the contemporary circus anymore, because a number of performances are connected by a common theme. Thus, the representatives of the contemporary circus Nanjing I claim: â€Å"It seems that the 'cultural signifiers' related to training do not simply 'jump from one body to another' but are embodied through slow, repetitive ongoing application according to a set of cultural values imported from China. The project challenged the attitudes to training of the trainers, students and administrators of Nanjing I and encouraged them to question their cultural assumptions† (Farrel 2008, p. 2). Thus, there is a special atmosphere and environment in the contemporary circus, which depends on the quality and thematic connection among different acts of performance. To reach a wholeness of narration, the artists in the contemporary circus introduce different changes in their performance, music and costumes. This is an evident difference between a traditional circus and the contemporary circus. The modern artists wear simple leotard s and there are no traditional costumes for clowns. Human bodies of the modern artists are moving in such enchanting manner that it is really fascinating to watch movements of their strong bodies and not to pay attention to their weird costumes, wigs or any other

Cybercrime and Digital Evidence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Cybercrime and Digital Evidence - Assignment Example Nonetheless, the internet users must adopt and apply all the necessary cyber privacy policies. The currently increasing modes of cybercrimes include encryption and anonymity that are growing to advance levels. Nonetheless, computer forensic has remained a vital tool in eliminated all cybercrimes as well as convicting such related criminals including sexual predators, terrorists, and murders. Terrorists may use the internet platform to recruit members and plan their terror acts, while the sexual predators are likely to use social media sites to lure potential victims. Most of these crimes usually go undetected especially when the criminal investigation team uses technologies that were implemented before some computer technological advancements (Maras 151). However, the criminal investors must note that none is lost and they can still pursue cyber criminals even if they delete the information that may be regarded as illegal data or information. Notably, when persons use computer, they often think that when they delete such information or data, all such is erased completely. On the contrary, such files and data usually remain in the hard disc; thus, providing platform of investigating and or tracking cyber related criminal activities. Deleted file and data usually remain in the in a binary form because of â€Å"data remanence† that is also considered as residual data presentation. Extraction of such data and files are avenues that cybercrime investigators should deploy to prosecute the criminals. In fact, deleting of the file and or data is just a mere renaming the data or file and hiding it from the user. This means that the original file can still be recovered in its original content; thus, can be used for prosecution (Maras 172). Therefore, the public or persons who have experienced cybercrime related activities must not serge on the pretext that the suspected criminal has deleted the information they used against them, but they should report the same si nce such information could be retrieved for further actions. Additionally, the global position systems (GPS) software is usually embedded in the satellite a smartphones navigation systems are also modes of prosecution since they can be used to track a suspect. The GPS related information can be traced from the form manufacturers since the companies that develop this software usually develop satellite navigators; therefore, using necessary tools and technologies the computer forensic experts should liaise with the GPS developer to obtain the information that they need for crime purposes. Notably, information usually travels through internet through the GPS systems and the same is distributed through satellite. However, the use of GPS to track criminal may be turn futile since GPS software is only limited to certain address listing. In fact, the current GPS software systems do not record time when the address was achieved; thus, using them will make it difficult to determine when the alleged crime was committed. Moreover, it may be difficult to ascertain whether the address recorded in the GPS software system was automatically generated or was a mere input to implicate a person. Therefore, it would be advisable for the computer fore

The Social Network Movie Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Social Network Movie Analysis - Essay Example The social network gives us the price of the need for acceptance when it changes into the blind ambition of social climbing. This movie rejects the tropes of money and power. It explores the moment of time at which facebook was invented, via the perspectives of clever youthful men who acclaim to be present at its inception. Plot In the fall of 2003, Mark Zuckerberg (Jess Eisenberg) tries to explain to her girlfriend (Rooney Mara), the significance of being a member of one of Harvard University’s 8 prestigious all-male social societies called ‘final clubs’. Mark describes these social societies as being exclusive. Mark Zuckerberg is not good at articulating himself in person. He first distances himself from his girlfriend, who feels that communicating with him is like working the 'Stairmaster' while taking strong exemption to his haughty remarks towards her. This leads to his girlfriend dumping him. Mark’s first effort to create a website in film, a site whe re photos of female Harvard students are placed beside each other, and then users click on the girl who they think is the hottest. This site is wildly accepted and admired but results in every campus girl considering him as a sexist pig, and their boyfriends constantly threatening him. Together with his friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), they both copy a proposed website for networking from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, which was made solely for Harvadites, and renaming it, 'The Facebook'. This website which they come up with, connects students, express what drives life in college, who is single, and how to connect with girls in school. They are then approached by Napster-fame Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), and following his advice, 'The' is removed, thus giving rise to the now-innovative and revolutionary,’Facebook’. This website, Facebook can be accessed by any individual worldwide, and not just some elite campuses. His communication ina bility, urge to emerge number one, and competitiveness, will distance him. This results in two lawsuits, one from his best friend Eduardo, and the other from the Winklevoss twins. (Www.imdb.com). in this analysis, I will use Mark Zuckerberg, his girlfriend Rooney Mara, and his best friend Eduardo Saverin, to explore on the interpersonal variables. I will use the variables of, electrically mediated communication, and, ingratiating. Interpersonal Concepts and Variables By definition, interpersonal concept is when the needs or ideas of two individuals are opposing to each other. Electronically Mediated Communication refers to any form of communication that takes place through the use of two or more electronics, such as computers, and websites. This concept of communication applies to forms of text-based interaction such as text messaging, or those communications that take place through formats that are computer-mediated such as chat rooms, and websites. This term encompasses both ICTs (information communication technologies), and computer-mediated communication. Computer-mediated communication is the style of online communication and the message it conveys. ICTs, on the other hand, means machines themselves, mobile phones, PDAs and computers.( www.netlingo.com) Ingratiating, on the other hand, refers to what an individual would actively do in an attempt to make another individual or individuals to like him or her.(faculty.Babson.edu) Electrically Mediated Communication In the movie, this variable was widely used. We see that Mark Zuckerberg first

Qualitative Research Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Qualitative Research Proposal - Essay Example The employees will be informed of the scope of the research and their consent sought before sampling 137 participants through stratified random sampling. Data will be analyzed by the researcher’s rationale before coding and application of SPSS software for descriptive statistics and comparisons. Application of the software reduces probability of bias. Ethical issues such as nonmalefecence, beneficence, justice, autonomy, and fidelity are expected to arise during the research process and measures have been taken to observe the ethical principles. ‘Effects of drug abuse on domestic violence’ is my topic of interest. The topic’s independent variable is consumption of drugs and is measurable on two scales, consumption, or non-consumption of drugs, and participants’ level of consumption of drugs. The dependent variable is experienced domestic violence with the drug users as victims or perpetrators of the violence. The proposed research aims at ascertaining an assumption of a relationship between drug abuse and domestic violence and the extent to which consumption of the substances contribute to the violence. The relationship between drug abuse and domestic violence has been widely explored for possible solutions. It has for example been established that victims of drug abuse have violent behaviors that they express in their domestic set ups. A research to investigate existence a relationship between drug abuse, violence, and suicide reported history of violent behavior, which can manifest in homes, among a significant percentage of drug addicts, about 75 percent. This indicates that substance abuse is a major factor to domestic violence (Ilgen and Kleinberg, 2011). Drug addicts with violent behaviors in domestic set ups however restrain from the behavior upon rehabilitation but resumes violence when they relapse to substance abuse. This is according to a research that investigated the relationship between relapse to

Financial Reporting and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial Reporting and Analysis - Essay Example NBA franchise and other intangible assets have a value of $164,703 $164702 and $165 035 in years 1996, 1997, and 1998 respectively. This shows that the method of amortisation reflect the pattern of the usage of assets in generation of income. NBA intangible assets are defined in cost less amortisation that has accumulated. Straight line method spread over the useful estimated lives of the intangible assets which is generally 3-7 years provides the amortisation. b) Discontinued operations are referred to as parts of an entity that has been sold or has been put into held for sale grouping. While evaluating the future success prospects of an organization, an investor who has existed or a potential investor who will invest in future would remove the discontinued operations from consideration because these items have no bearing or effects on the future. The concern of the management is that some operations are discontinued to improve the results of the continuing operations. The operation s and cash flows of the part has been removed from the ongoing operations and the entity will not have a significant involvement in the operations of the discontinued part after the transaction of disposal is made. c) Team costs and expenses increased between 1996 and 1997 from $27,891,264 to $40,941,156. This is because of after discontinuing some operations, it would require a major effort to re-establish the operation and requires significant effort and budget to continue the operations as before. This may need extra marketing, extra staffing. There can be a possibility of increase in the cost of living between the two years which would subsequently raise the amount of team costs and expenses. d) Net income was $420,306 and $12,267,317 in year 1997 and 1998 respectively. This was a hefty rise in the value of income. This is because of higher revenue that was gained. Higher revenue resulted from ticket sales and also from Television and radio broadcasting fees in 2008. By constant winning of games, heavy promotion and advertisement through the television and broadcast and also through reaching a wide fan base by selling many tickets resulted to the higher income. Through maintaining lower expenses such as team costs and expenses, selling and promotion, general and administrative in the year 1998 resulted to an increase in net income. e) Noting that net income was higher in 1996, distributions declared were higher in 1998 than in 1996, with $0.50 per unit. Distributions are that portion of corporate profits that is made by a corporation to its shareholders. Net income can either be re-invested in the business or distributed to stockholders. In 1996, the main source of the net income was from the discontinued operations income. This income was better invested back to the business instead of distributing it to the shareholders. This would help avoid double taxation and be realised as capital gains. Case 10-7 Cash movements and Periodic Income Determination a) I ncome determination is not an exact science. It is the best estimate of determination of what will be the base of individuals’ income on the evidence the individual presents. The base period can be the month for which revenue verification and identification of an individual is a requirement. Month’s income is used for the projection of income. Income averaged and a conversion factor can be used to reach at a quantifiable monthly income. b) Cash flow estimation is the prediction whose main purpose is the anticipation of the disbursements and receipts of cash. It is a fixed amount of time that it covers. Cash sensitivity and aggressiveness determines the penetration

Business Partner Model Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Partner Model - Coursework Example A distinction can be made between â€Å"hard† and â€Å"soft† approaches to HRM, in which the organization may adopt â€Å"hard† approach, whereby employees can be perceived as a resource to be managed just like other factors of production. Conversely, organizations may place an emphasis on a â€Å"soft† approach to HRM in which employees comes out as a valuable asset, whose contribution plays a critical role in the attainment of organization success. The paper explores the efficacy of business partner model in addressing the changes and improvements necessitated by investing in â€Å"human capital.† HR business partnering represents the process in which HR professionals closely work with business leaders or line managers with the intention of attaining shared organizational objectives, primarily with the motive of designing and implementing HR systems and processes that propel strategic business aims (Caldwell 2010, p.49). In the HR business partne r model, the human resource departments play a critical role in strategic planning, especially in attainment of present and future objectives (Ian 2006, p.33). The model does not only concentrate on HR duties such as payroll, benefits, and employee relations, but also add value to the company by directing recruiting, advancement, training, and placement of new and current employees (Lambert 2009, p.7). Business partnering seeks to encourage line managers at diverse levels to take responsibility in managing HR team. Business partner model seeks to enhance the effectiveness of HR and minimize its costs. The ultimate aim of business partnering centers of aligning people strategy more closely with what the business requires. The engagement in training and development can be undertaken with full knowledge of the inner workings of the business (Dowling, Festing, and Engle 2008, p.4). Hence, the strategic orientation that business partner model heralds allows organizations to attain the mo st productive outcome. Some of the key issues encountered in the implementation of business partnering entail absence of clarity regarding the HR’s role, and the lack of a consistent business strategy within which HR can work. HR may be marginalized from real decision making, and the influence of business partnering may differ. Some of the inherent conflicts within the model derive from the fact that the performance of one role may conflict with competing demands yielding to potential role-overload (Ian 2006, p.34). Other possible conflicts emanates from incomplete performance criteria in undertaking a single role, such as being strategic while at the same time responding to line manager’s tactical issues (Lambert 2009, p.8). The implementation of business partner model can herald enhancements on the organization’s bottom line and productivity. The implementation of business partnering can lead to sustained revenue growth, profit growth and cost reduction, and i mproved customer royalty and retention. This hinges on the capability to work smarter (business partnering

Track Software Inc. Essay Example for Free

Track Software Inc. Essay 1.) Stanley’s financial goal he seems to be focusing on is maximizing profits. This is the correct goal because the goal of any firm and therefore its financial manager, should be to maximize its value and by extension the wealth of the shareholders. 2.) There is potential for an agency problem if Stanley decides to go ahead and invest in the software developer. This investment will cause a temporary decrease in the earnings per share of the firm which will mean fewer earnings at the present time for the stakeholders. This may be a problem if the goal of the shareholders is to gain money sooner than later. Since, the goal of the shareholders is simply to maximize wealth, there may not be an agency problem since the goal of the financial manager, Stanley, is the same as the shareholders. B. Since there is no preferred stock; Earnings available for common stockholders ≠¡ Net profit after taxes. No of shares of common stock outstanding = 50,000 Earnings per share = ______Net profit after taxes____________ No. of shares of common stock outstanding EPS show a steady increase over the past five years indicating that Stanley is achieving his goal of maximizing profits. C. Operating Cash Flow (OCF) for 2012 OCF = {Earnings before Interest and Taxes Ãâ€" (1 – Tax rate)} + Depreciation OCF = {EBIT Ãâ€" (1 – T)} + Depreciation = {$89 000 Ãâ€" (1 – 0.20)} + $11 000 = $82 200 Free Cash Flow (FCF) for 2012 FCF = OCF1 – Net Fixed Assets Investments – Net Current Assets Investment FCF = OCF – NFAI – NCAI NFAI = Change in net fixed assets + Depreciation = ($132 000 – $128 000) + $11 000 = $15 000 NCAI = Chance in current assets – Change in (Accounts Payable + Accruals) = ($421 000 – $62 000) – {($136 000 + $27 000) – ($126 000 + $25 000)} =$47 000 FCF = $82 200 – $15 000 – $47 000 = $20 200 Both the operating cash flow and the free cash flow are positive indicating that Stanley was able to generate adequate cash flow to cover both operating expenses and investments in assets. There was also $20 200 left over to pay to investors. 1.) Liquidity Although the liquidity of the firm has improved slightly (current ratio) or remained steady (quick ratio), the firm’s performance is considerably below average. 2.) Activity The total asset turnover of the firm has improved but the inventory turnover and average collection period has deteriorated. The activity of the firm is also considerably below the industry average. 3.) Debt The debt ratio decreased in the times interest earned ratio improved. This indicates that the firm used more of its own money to generate profit in 2012 (rather than that of its creditors) and its ability to make contractual interest payments has improved. However, the firm fails to measure up to the industrial average yet again. 4.) Probability The gross, operating and net profit margin and the return on total assets (ROA) have improved slightly showing that the profitability of the firm is fairly stable, demonstrating little improvement. Even so, these ratios are all still subpar. The return of common equity (ROE) has deteriorated, falling to below the industrial average. 5.) Market The firm’s P/E ratio improved but remained bellowed the industry average, showing that the investors are gaining confidence in the firm’s future performance. The M/B ratio fell below, from above the industrial average in 2011 to below in 2012 but still remains fair. E. Stanley should try to find the money to hire the software developer since the ratios show that the firm should be performing better for a firm in this particular industry. In addition, the â€Å"blockbuster† sales potential implies a potential for increased profitability which falls in line with Stanley’s focus. F. The present value of a perpetuity creating a cash flow of $5 000 per year with a 10% interest rate =_____Cash Flow____ Interest Rate  = $5,000 = $50 000  .10 The investor would be willing to pay $50 000 for the firm. G. The present value of a firm generating a perpetual stream of free cash flow of $20 200 per year with an interest rate of 10 % = ___Cash Flow___ Interest Rate  =__$20,200__ =$202,000  .10  I would be willing to pay $202 000 for the firm.

Lecture by Cornelia Parker at the Bartlett January Essay Example for Free

Lecture by Cornelia Parker at the Bartlett January Essay Cornelia Parker is a London-based sculptor and installation artist. She was born during the year 1956 in Cheshire, England. She was raised on a Cheshire smallholding. Cornelia Parkers work is regarded internationally for its complex, darkly humorous, ironic style. Cornelia Parkers work is highly allusive and patterned with cultural references to cartoons, a style which she adapts to her need to capture things in the moment before they slip away and are lost beyond human perception. When examining her work holistically one can see the following themes driving her work forward consumerism, globalization, and the role of the mass media in contemporary life. Cornelia Parker was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1997 and featured in the 8th International Sharjah Biennial in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates in 2007. Cornelia Parker, sculptor and installation artist intensified her campaign against disused silver a few years later when she crushed hundreds of plated items with a steamroller. She has also flattened thousands of coins under the wheels of passing trains, plucked feathers from Sigmund Freud’s pillow and blown up garden sheds with plastic explosive. The results of these depredations have been hung in art galleries where they have received high praise from public and critics alike. Her collaboration with the actress Tilda Swinton, ‘The Maybe’ at the Serpentine Gallery, was the focus of excited national attention for its display of Swinton, surrounded by objects selected by Parker, sleeping throughout the day in a glass case. In November 1996 Parker mounted a solo show called ‘Avoided Object’ at Chapter Art Gallery in Cardiff. Word of mouth was infectious and the show attracted scouts from London. Avoided Object is the title of series of smaller works which have been developed in liaison with various institutions, including the Rayal Armouries and Madame Tussauds. These â€Å"avoided† objects have often had their identities transformed by being burned, shot, squashed, stretched, drawn, exploded, cut, or simply dropped off cliffs. Cartoon deaths have long held a fascination for Parker: ‘Tom being run over by a steamroller or Jerry riddled with bullet holes. Sometimes the objects demise has been orchestrated, or it may have occurred accidentally or by natural causes. They might be â€Å"preempted† objects that have not yet achieved a fully formed identity, having been plucked prematurely from the production line like Embryo Firearms 1995. They may not even be classified as objects: things like cracks, creases, shadows, dust or dirt The Negative of Whispers 1997: Earplugs made with fluff gathered in the Whispering Gallery, St Paul’s cathedral .Or they m ight be those territories you want to avoid psychologically, such as the backs, underbellies or tarnished surfaces of things.’ Cornelia Parker uses processes of destruction to transform found objects. She steamrolled, explodes, degrade and turn poisonous, and presents the remains of the object. She collects tarnish, dust, stains, and traces of the object as an archive may store the trace or residue of an event. How is memory attached to the object, does it become unstuck during the process? Does the object continue to embody its past in its morphed and rearranged construction? And how is this past still present, through the viewers’ projection of their readings, through clues given in the ‘found’ titles of the artwork? Of the collected silverware, all with different stories, Parker says she wanted to ‘give them one story’, by flattening them with a steamroller. Parker seems to also enjoy the unexpected stories when the reader projects something new onto the artwork or interesting things are discovered within the ‘blow up’. For example, she was asked by a curator at the Tate if the Pornographic prints were made by a human body, which is the curator reading into the Rorschach inkblots. Einstein’s formulae on a blackboard, when photographed under a microscope resemble ‘sea creatures’, Parker suggests nature under the mathematics. She also photographs under a microscope dust collected from Donald Judd’s work, and describes the emerging imagery as ‘Gothic’. Parker is talking art history in her East End flat, standing beside a humming slide projector. Her slightly stooped stance reminds us that tall women are politer than tall men. They succumb to the wearisome need to bend down towards their lesser interlocutors. As she speaks one realizes that her face is rarely in repose her delivery is rapid, nervously energized, its content a dense mixture of anecdote and analysis. The vigor of her commentary is directly reflected in her work, which proliferates in an apparently unbroken stream much like the awesome eruptions that inspire it. She is talking about her enchantment with the exploded view. â€Å"You could just about visualize what the original object was,† she explains, â€Å"but I started thinking how all the fragments might reform to make completely new objects with new uses.† These speculations eventually evolved into the ideas that have so fruitfully driven Parker to make art. In 1991 she took her preoccupation with the metaphysics of explosions to an extreme that marked a breakthrough in her work. Parker filled a garden shed with tools, a lawnmower, a bicycle, books and toys, all culled from the artist’s trove of orphaned objects that is the British car boot sale. The shed was installed and photographed in the Chisenhale Gallery in London’s East End, then dismantled and transported to the British Army School of Ammunition at Kineton. Lieutenant Colonel Joe Hastings and Major Dougie Hewitt applied sticks of pale marzipan explosive to the interior of the shed and blew it to pieces. For several hours squad dies and a delighted Parker combed the area, picking up every single shard and sliver, every shred of the shrapnel of the mower and the mangled mass of bent bike. A few days later an eerie and exquisite sculpture, ‘Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View’, was unveiled in the stark concrete space of the Chisen-hale Gallery. Parker had painstakingly reassembled the shed and its shattered contents, suspending each tiny blasted scrap from a filament of wire and illuminating the whole with a single bare white bulb placed at the epicenter. The shed had been frozen in space a millisecond after its disintegration; only the bang is missing, rather like the cold, dark matter that astronomers say makes up the weight of the Universe. The business of finding new currency for old and familiar objects has led the indefatigable Parker down some exotic pathways. Her ‘Thirty Pieces of Silver’ also featured an act of great violence followed by a display of surpassing beauty. Turning again to the cornucopia of the car boot, the artist collected hundreds of old silver and silver-plated tea-pots, candle-sticks, toast-racks, salvers and the odd trombone. The tarnished tat, displaced from numberless mantelpieces, was laid out on the ground in a long, gently curving line and slowly crushed by a steamroller. After the grinding and clanking had subsided, Parker picked up the pieces. The YBAs [Young British Artists], supposedly typified by Damien Hirst, have become inseparable from the controversy staged around their work and Parker is frequently written about as if she were part of the gang. A distinction that generally escapes her commentators is that at the age of 41 she has, in fact, quite happily relinquished the ‘Y’ part of the sobriquet. She graduated from the Fine Arts course at Reading University in 1982 and has been steadily mounting exhibitions in the art capitals of the world ever since. Given that there’s no proper money in art unless you’re up there with Damien, Parker lives off a succession of commissions, awards and residencies, whilst renting a modest shared flat in Shoreditch. At the time of writing she was rather looking forward to seeing her newish partner, a Texan artist on the point of visiting London. The work that so impressed the Turner Prize selectors saw Parker working on a much smaller scale than that of her shed and steamroller period. ‘The Cardiff show,† she says, â€Å"had lots of little residues of objects that are all quite slight but together add up to something solid.† The ‘avoided objects’ speak of their role in a process which has made them seem redundant. â€Å"They’re about things that have lost their life or not yet got a life.† As an example, she cites ‘The Negative of Sound’, a framed assemblage of strands of black lacquer, the swarf discarded from the ‘master’ of a record first cut in Abbey Road Studios. â€Å"The idea of the negative of sound, for me, is fantastic. How can you listen to it? What does it sound like? What kind of instrument would you have to have to play them on?† Avoided objects can also be ex-objects. For ‘Exhaled Cocaine’ Parker persuaded Customs Excise to give her the ashes of seized, incinerated cocaine, presented by the artist as an end product ‘breathed out’ by a crucial process in its history. This poetic recycling of residue is also seen in a piece whose title would, quite wrongly, lead overheated British journalists to believe their usual suspicions were justified. ‘Pornographic Drawings’ is the fruit of another successful transaction with Customs Excise. â€Å"They’re Rorschach blots made from confiscated pornography. The video tape was chopped up into tiny pieces, to get rid of it, and they gave me a big bag full. I wanted to recreate images from things that had been taken out of circulation, so I made an ink out of it. Most of them did turn out to be quite pornographic, but if you think they are, that’s you projecting because they’re only accidental ink blots.† Parker’s attention is directed always at the ignored, undervalued and forgotten. She pushes quizzically at the surface of the everyday until its objects reveal their hidden histories. These stories reveal in turn that much of what we take for granted is immersed in the streams of memory and myth that carry meaning into our lives. Galleries are not the only site in which she has placed her provocations. Forests, railway stations and bell towers have been requisitioned, sometimes for purposes of display, sometimes as places of concealment that may be chanced upon by the unsuspecting. Despite the many forms it takes, Parker’s art has an impressive internal consistency. All her work stems from a wittily philosophical consideration of the processes that bring everyday objects into being. She feels that this preoccupation, in turn, was partly brought into being by a curious event that took place in1961. Even if, she did not win the Turner Prize, many of her Avoided Objects will be seen by the thousands who visit the Tate for the six week show featuring the work of all the nominees. In addition to the works described, visitors will see her embryo guns, the feather from Freud’s pillow, a magnified photo of the grooves of a record owned by Hitler and several other evidences of a refined and ingenious sensibility. Pressed to speculate on her prize-winning chances, the artist is characteristically modest. â€Å"Oh, it’ll just be great to be shown in the Tate† is the most she’ll say. Were Parker to pull it off, however, her power to realize some of her more ambitious projects would be considerably enhanced. NASA, for example, would be bound to send a meteorite back into space for her and she might, at long last, be able to persuade Stanley Kubrick to part with a sample of his navel fluff. A few weeks ago Parker was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize. Reference ‘Avoided Object’ (2007), Lecture by Cornelia Parker at the Bartlett January. London. Source document

Can Robots Really Be Used For Childcare Young People Essay

Can Robots Really Be Used For Childcare Young People Essay 1. Introduction What do you think of when the word robots come to your mind? If you think they are the machines that you see in a movie or read about in a science fiction novel, think again. Robots are the largest growing technological devices in the world. They perform many functions ranging from space exploration to entertainment. According to scientist, in the future, robots will be doing our yard work, taking over some of our jobs, and monitoring our health on a daily basis. Does it sound unbelievable? This might just be the kind of world our descendents will grow up in. Its hard not to think about having our lives changed by the introduction of these new robots. As for the household aspect, computers will make our daily drudgery of housework dramatically more interesting. In the next decade robots should be cleaning our floors, mowing our lawns, and even taking care of our children while we are away at work. Robots will be an integral part of our lives. 2. What are Child-care robots? A babysitter or companion on call round the clock to supervise and entertain the kids is the dream of many working parents. Now, robot manufacturers in Japan and South Korea are racing to fulfil those parents dreams with affordable robots which will act as nannies to their children. These robots will be equipped with game playing, quizzes, speech recognition, face recognition and limited conversation to capture the preschool childs interest and attention. Their mobility and semi-autonomous function combined with facilities for visual and auditory monitoring are designed to keep the child from harm. Parents would be able to use these robots as means to keep a look out for their children while they are away at work. These robots will also be a means in which parents will communicate with their kids as the robots will be equipped with a mobile phone where parents would be able to call and speak directly to their children through the robot or send short messages which would be read out by the robot to their children. 3. Technologies involved in Child-care robots Child-care robots will be equipped with cameras for parents to be able to monitor their children at all time and to make sure that they are safe and are interacting well with the robot. There will also be a mobile phone installed into the robot for parents to keep in voice contact with their children. Other than the more visible technological elements of the robots, it is what is behind the plastic outer shell of the robot which matters. The Artificial Intelligence of these robots would be of a very high level and they will be equipped with face recognition technology and the robot will be able to form a bond with the person in which it has continually come in contact with on a daily basis. The functions that the nanny robots would be able to perform are only limited to ones imagination and as long as technology continues to improve; the boundaries of the tasks that they will be able to carry out will continually be pushed. 4. Issues Child-care robots may bring about Although child-care robots will be able to substitute the role of a parent for the time that parents are away from home, would there be any implications on the wellbeing of the child due to the presence of these robots. I will now analyze the various issues child-care robots may bring about. 4.1 Safety of children An extremely important factor for consumers is that they trust child-care robots to keep their children safe from harm. The main way that parents could ensure this is through mobile monitoring, where they can watch their children at all times. An additional way to increase supervision of their children from the office, parents would be able to upload a customized map of their homes to the robot so that it can recognize danger areas where it would try to restrict the child from going to. If the robot is programmed to identify dangerous situations, it would most probably also be programmed to take steps to avoid the child from getting into the situation. In other words, the robot would be restraining the child from committing an act deemed harmful by the robot, because of the way it was programmed, even though it would not be deemed harmful by the parent itself. Imagine a robot taking a sweet away from a child because it deems that sweets will eventually cause diabetes. Maintaining the safety of a child must be done but the robot must not be an authoritarian who stops children from expressing themselves or doing what they want to do. A line must be drawn somewhere, maybe parents would be able to program how strict their robots must be but we have to keep in mind that we cannot plan for every single scenario and program the robot in certain way. Sometimes, we must wait for a situation to arise before we will be able to see how the robot and child reacts to it. 4.2 Robot Child Relationship Another extremely important factor in the use of child-care robots is how receptive children will be to the robots as well as whether the child would be able to form a bond with the robot. Studies have shown that children from a very young age would form a very close bond to their toys. In some cases, they would not go to sleep without their favourite teddy or will not play with any other toy except for their favourite ones. Now, with the robot being able to listen and speak to them and feel their touch, children would regard their robots as their friends and they would feel that they would have formed relationships with their robots. However, the issue will arise with children whom from a very young age grow up to think that the relationship they had with their robots are genuine human relations. These children would have been drawn into the false relationship by their parents and there could possibly be harmful effects on the child either psychologically or emotionally. 4.3 Emotional Psychological Risks It is possible that children who are brought up fully or partially by the care of a robot will be affected in their social and emotional development. It is understood that a baby has a very close relationship with his/her mother when the baby is born till the baby is quite old. There will be a special emotional connection between the child and the mother and no robot would be able to substitute the mother of the child and have that same emotional relationship When the baby is brought up by its care giving robot, it would not feel the same emotional bond towards the robot and thus will not have a strong emotional feeling toward the robot which would hinder the childs emotional growth as the child grows up. Another factor which may drive the child into a shell is that robots, unlike humans, will not be able to read expressions on our faces. They rely on the tone of our voices or feel our touch. They would not be able to process tears from the childs eyes and would not be able to identify if anything is wrong and would really hurt the child emotionally as well as psychologically. 5. Conclusion The technology for a child-care robot is not very far from being achieved. Companies are working doubly hard to try to come out with a robot which will really change the face of Artificial Intelligence out there in the market today. These robots would be able to interact with humans much more than anything before. However, there are many worrying factors that point to not being over reliant on these robots if they ever do hit the shelves. I feel that robots, even though programmed to handle any scenario which it comes across in bringing up a child, will never be able to substitute the human touch aspect of bringing up a child. A human being is far more superior to a robot in bringing up a child. Even though people may argue that child-care robot will only take care of the child when parents are away at work, that period of time is enough to affect the growth of the child and being at a child care centre, interacting with other children their age as well as having someone to look after them at the centres would be more beneficial to them. No matter how many people resist the usage of the child-care robots, it would most likely be that the majority of people will see more benefits than harm in it and by using these child-care robots it would be the dawn of the time of Artificial Intelligence in households.

the new guinea cargo plane cult from a socialogicle perspective :: essays research papers

The New Guinea cargo plane cult from a functionalist perspective stresses that the un-industrialization of the cult is due to the developed world not sharing technological advances with the tribe (cult). The tribe leader’s ability to explain the purpose of the cargo planes and the tribe’s inability to succeed with riches like that of the white man had a large affect on the tribe’s belief system. The tribes simple way of life was disturbed by the discovery of cargo planes in the sky, shocking whatever beliefs the tribe had prior to that discovery. It was the conclusion of the leaders or elders of the community that the planes where gifts from there ancestors and that their inability to succeed like other cultures was do to the white man coxing the plane to land in their fields, therefore stealing the riches that the cults ancestors sent to them. The manifest function of the leaders needing to explain what was happening was do to the culture shock the tribe received when the first saw the planes, while however the latent function of the of this was to keep the tribe unified through ignorance. It was the only way to keep a small community of confused people together do to the fact that people do not like to be separated from the people whom they’ve become familiar with. Though the manifest functions of adoring the cargo planes proves to be a shift of blame from the tribe leaders to the white man, the latent function has proved to unify the tribe in faith and in their daily walk of life. Solidarity is their shining light of hope in a world that has left them, however to analyze a group of people from a sociological perspective one must provide more than one perspective. Karl Marx developed the conflict theory and concluded that â€Å"the key to human history is class struggle. In every society, some small group controls the means of production and exploits those who are not in control (Henslin,2004 pg.15)†. According to Karl Marx â€Å"authority that people consider legitimate permeates society on every level.† People whom are in positions of authority will always try to enforce conformity within a community. In the case of the cargo plane cult the people of the community consider the priest as their legitimate authority, authorities that have come to realization that the discovery of the planes questions the knowledge of the priest and could in fact end their position as leaders in their community.

Marketing Plan for a Cosmetics Company Essay -- Business Marketing Fin

Marketing Plan for a Cosmetics Company EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  CosmoCosmetics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1389 Sunshine Ave.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fort Lauderdale , Fl 34587   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  CosmoCosmetics has decided to create a new foundation make up line for African American women exclusively. We believe there is a niche for this type of business since no make up brands specialise in this target.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  CosmoCOsmetics would be the exclusive manufacturer that sells to cosmetic retailers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Not only would emphasise on the variety of colours but also the packaging of the product. 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The colours would be adjusted to this type of skin( a wide variety of darker colours ) 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The make up would be offered as a spray, a completely new format in the make up industry. A Compact size that doesn?t occupy any space in the hand bag, extremely easy to use and achieves the best natural and professional results any woman would dream of.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After studying the cosmetic market we can identify a series of needs in this market: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  EASE OF USE 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  AVAILABILITY 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  PORTABILITY 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  VARIETY OF COLORS 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  DURABLE Our Spray Foundation would meet these needs by offering: 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Spray packaging with a diffuser. 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Big cosmetic retailers across South Florida, near business areas and suburbs (Miami Downtown, North Miami Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach. 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Compact size: 30 ml.(doesn?t occupy much space in the lady?s purse). 4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Variety of colours adjusted to their type of skin tone. 5)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Long Durability: Just needs to be applied once a day, for long lasting results. The combination of powder + minerals will make the makeup last longer leaving a moisturized and natural look. Market. Household and personal care product companies are making efforts to stimulate sales in a variety of ways, such as entering new markets, creating new product categories, adding new distribution channels, and acquiring (and divesting) businesses to be able to compete in this highly competitive industry. Over the last decade, sales at general merchandise stores, pharmacies and drugstores, have grown at average annual rates of 6.0% and 7.5%, respectively, according to US Census Bureau retail trade data. The US and Western European markets are reaching saturation- therefore cosmetic companies see the future markets for their products in Central and Eastern Europe, Chi... ...lenge for us. Break-even (units)= ($116.400 + $32.000)/ $23= 6.453 units /quarter Break-even sales ($)= 6.453*28.5= $183.911 Total Revenue from sales   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $183.911 Cost of goods sold  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $43.500   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ------------- Gross profit  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   $140.411 Calculating the ratio of variable expenses to net sales The percentage is $43.500/ $183.911 = 23.65% Cosmo-cosmetics Co. uses $0.246 out of every sale dollar to cover variable expenses, leaving $0.753 as a contribution margin to cover fixed costs and make a profit. (Note: 75.3% is the contribution margin as a percentage of sales) Break-even sales = $116.400/ 0.753 = $154.582 Thus, Cosmo-cosmetics will break even with sales of $154.582 Break-even Chart We would expect a sales level of $183.911 (Point A= Income) Income & Expenses Sales Volume The break-even point is located in the intersection between the total expense line and the revenue line. As it is shows, Cosmo-cosmetics operates at a sales Volume to the right of the break-even point (point A), this means that it would earn a profit because the revenue line lies above the expense line over this range ?Profit area?

Essay --

In Limbo reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful, did not accept Christ. Limbo shares many characteristics with the Asphodel Meadows; thus the guiltless damned are punished by living in a deficient form of Heaven. Without baptism ("the portal of the faith that you embrace")[6] they lacked the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive. Limbo includes green fields and a castle with seven gates to represent the seven virtues. The castle is the dwelling place of the wisest men of antiquity, including Virgil himself, as well as the Persian polymath Avicenna. In the castle Dante meets the poets Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan; the Amazon queen Penthesilea; the mathematician Euclid; the scientist Pedanius Dioscorides; the statesman Cicero; the first doctor Hippocrates; the philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Averroes; the historical figures Lucretia, Lucius Junius Brutus, and Julius Caesar in his role as Roman general ("in his armor, f alcon-eyed");[7] mythological characters Hector, Electra, Camilla, Latinus, and Orpheus; and many othe...

Idiolect: Drum Kit and Lebanese Roots

‘Though you might say that the way you speak is a very personal thing, and that you have your own ‘idiolect’, the way you speak is actually more determined by other people than by yourself. ’ How has you idiolect been affected? Everyone’s idiolect is influenced by many factors throughout their life, school, media, peers and many more. An idiolect is the way one speaks the vocabulary they use; the accent they have, the dialect they adopted. An idiolect is for one individual, it is unique, and no two people in the world have the exact same idiolect. My idiolect began to be affected and form the day I was able to speak. My mother gave birth to me in Toronto, Canada. Therefore, being born in Toronto the ’typical’ Canadian accent was adopted straight away. Using words like ‘aye’ and ‘no problem’ in a discussion with friends was a habit, even from a very early age. These words were adopted by hearing them in my school, friends and my cousin, who speaks in a semi-Canadian accent. Another major aspect that majorly affected the way I speak was my mother and father. Being born by Lebanese roots, most people including my mother thought I would take up Arabic as my mother tongue, however it was English. Having this difference from my mother and father affected my idiolect the day I was born and still affects me today. My mother speaks Arabic and English, but her main language is Arabic. Speaking English, from my perspective, was due to be born in a non-Arab country. Saying ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’ to a teacher in school instead of ‘Salam’ was due to the majority of the country spoke English. Arabic became less useful living in Canada and English became necessary. One of the biggest factors that affected my idiolect was moving from Canada to Bahrain. Bahrain in some ways was closer to my Lebanese roots and in others very different. Moving to Bahrain, my mother put me in a British curriculum school. Therefore most teachers, students and parents spoke in a British accent. This began to creep into my idiolect, after being surrounded by people speaking in a British accent; I adopted and exchanged words in my idiolect. Using words like ‘mate’ to refer to friend and using the very British ‘No worries’ instead of the Canadian ‘No problem’ when responding to somebody saying thank you when opening the door. My Canadian accent was weekend and a weak British accent was taken in. Another factor that affected my accent was my peers. At the ages of eight, nine and ten, my friends and peers began to use and adopt slang. Words like ‘Hey bro’ to greet a friend in the morning and ‘dude’ instead of calling them by there name at break, were used regularly. The reason why, at the time, I used slang was to fit in, to feel part of a group and to be seen as ‘cool’. Of course at the time I didn’t realize but these few words would affect my idiolect majorly. These words began to be used unconsciously, I stopped using the to seem cool and I began to use it for another reason. Words like ‘brosef’ when talking to my best friend in city centre and ‘chill’ when telling him to relax and calm down about being late going home. These words aloud me to make a brotherly bond with friends, it aloud it and me to seem close allowed me to judge a situation and affect it with using only a word or phrase. It allowed my friends to seem included and part of a group. However at the same time, I realized slang could only be used in situations that it seems appropriate, and once again this affected my idiolect in different situations. I realized that slang could only be used informally and when it is approved. For example greeting Mr. Wilson, I would usually say ‘Good morning sir’ instead of the slang phrase ‘Hey bro’. This is because Mr. Wilson and I are on unfamiliar terms and (in the situation) Mr. Wilson is in a higher and more powerful position than I. Therefore I address in a formal and respectful way. ‘Good morning’ shows the formal greeting and ‘sir’ shows I want to respect him. Another factor that affected my idiolect was when I began to play drums. At the age of 10, I began to play the drum set and found a particular passion and interest for music. This is when my semantic field on drums began, words like ‘Aux snare’ and ‘Splash’ entered my idiolect. The reason why I began to build a semantic field on drumming and music was due to the interest and need for it. It would be very difficult to buy a drum from a drum shop without a semantic field. Another use for a semantic field on drums was to allow me to be able to be taught drums, being able to understand the teacher easy and understand everything he said made it very easy to be taught and progress my skills in drumming. An example of this is when I went to a drum shop and attempted to buy a drum. On entering I asked the shopkeeper, ‘Hi, I was wondering do you have an Aux snare 13. 5 inch and if you could find am Evans blackhead for it that would be great. ’ The shop keeper replied by saying ‘okay umm, well we got a normal 13. 5 not aux but if you use a key to really put crack on it it’ll sound the same and yah we got a Blackhead for it. ’ In this scenario it would be near to impossible to explain what I need and understand what he said. The beautiful thing about having a semantic field on drums is I am able to use it worldwide because it is understood worldwide. Another moment that my idiolect changes is when I begin to change register. I use a higher register when speaking formally, especially when speaking to strangers. For example, when asking for directions in Awali, I used a much higher register then I was with my friend, who was in the car with me. ‘Excuse me sir, would u mind if you could point in the right direction to Riffa Views? Using excuse me showed I wanted to be polite, this is because I am the stranger and I are on unfamiliar terms. This is a very big contrast to the sentence I used before with my friend. ‘Dude, we’re lost, what bout we ask for directions, he seems cool’. This is showing my low register I used with my friend, I can use low register since it is not a formal event, and he knows me very well. Another aspect that affected my idiolect is when I began code switchi ng. I code switch between mainly English and Arabic, this is due to my Lebanese roots, in Lebanon and to Lebanese it is natural and normal sentence. I code switch a lot with my mother. For example when I was asking her if I could go to my friends. ‘Keefeek mama, feae rooh to Alex’s for the day? ’ My sentence began in Arabic and ended in English. Code switching allows me to have a bond with somebody. It makes the conversation more secretive and allows to people to have a bond between one another. Using code switching with my mom, I use the beginning in Arabic since it is a very cheerful way to greet her and allow her to feel more close to her Lebanese roots. Ending it in English makes it feel more to the point and it shows that I was not looking for a conversation and only to ask her a question. In conclusion, my idiolect has been affected by eight main factors. Each one affecting my idiolect and molding it into what it is today. Each one affecting it in a different way and each one having a different impact, these points have shown that even if your idiolect is your own, factors out of your control have affected it and shaped it. Therefore your idiolect is determined more by other people then by yourself.

On Adam’s Curse Essay

William Butler Yeats is an Irish dramatist, author, and poet whose works are mostly classified as lyric and almost belonging to the age of the English romantics. He was a Nobel Prize awardee and one of the founders of the Irish Literary Revival. His works are the utmost expressions of his emotions and opinions and for such they are renowned. They have made Yeats the most influential English-writing poet of the twentieth century (â€Å"William Butler Yeats†). In his work, â€Å"Adam’s Curse†, which was published in 1902, Yeats exposed to his audience the depths of his mind. He spoke of his beliefs in beauty, how it may truly be seen, and achieved. More importantly it explained how beauty is truly understood and appreciated. Typical with Yeats’ other works, the poem has a consistent rhyme and meter. For every stanza, there is a definitive sound that ties all the lines together and makes the lyric piece progress smoothly to its meaning. The rhymes are external mostly by the end of each line and the point of view utilized is first person. This means that the speaker of the poem is present as the story of the piece unfolds. The speaker is the one who experienced a disturbing occurrence. Also the speaker is the one opining on the given occurrence, the one conveying the writer’s message. The initial clue as given by the speaker of the poem is in the first stanza, where the speaker was seemingly disappointed by people’s perception of true beauty. He said that he, together with the object of his affection is talking about poetry, and how beauty is created in difficulty. The disappointment set in when he stated that there are people who believe that they know beauty and yet they find artists and poets as lazy people. They do not see the labor that is poured into by creators in their works, yet they claim to know how to appreciate real beauty (Yeats). In the second stanza, the object of the speaker’s affection agreed with the speaker in saying that beauty needs to be labored upon. Merely admiration is not the basis for knowing true beauty, nor is merely reciting a beautiful poem. This is supported by the succeeding lines where the speaker further pointed that after Adam’s fall, there had not been anything beautiful that was not a result of hard labor. In the example which was given in the poem, the beautiful feeling of love. The speaker indicated that love is beautiful and it is not easily earned. A man needs to work to achieve the love of a woman. Merely knowing the feeling of love and not taking action upon it is not the true way of appreciating love. Lovers who work for their feelings are the good laborers, while those who keep their emotions are idlers. In the case of artists and poets, which seems to be the trade of the speaker, he who creates beauty by combining words to create an image that can convey a message are the true laborers. The businessmen and merchants who claim that they are lazy have no right to claim that they know the beauty in poetry or in paintings and many other forms of art. They have no right to attest that a work is of beauty because they do not accept the labor that is behind it. They fail to accept that the secret of beauty is that it never looks like it has been labored upon. Its power is to trap life’s wonders and make it appear at an arm’s reach. This is why it is relaxing and comforting. This is the message that the poem tries to convey. The writer is telling that artists and poets are not idlers. In fact, they have what may be considered as the biggest burden of all. They are to contemplate, imagine, and create a work that can console a sorrowing heart, or bring excitement to a bored soul. Their task is difficult as they are to hide hardships in their works. It is even worse than computing for the day’s sale. There is nothing routine in it, for routine can destroy its essence. Adam’s curse that made laboring necessary is a curse that is heaviest on an artist’s shoulder and this is what Yeats conveyed in his poetry. Works Cited â€Å"William Butler Yeats†. 2009. Nobelprize. org. 27 April 2009 < http://nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bio. html >. Yeats, William Butler. 1902. â€Å"Adam’s Curse† the beckoning. com. 27 April 2009 < http://www. thebeckoning. com/poetry/yeats/yeats4. html >.

Drawing from the K303 materials critically discuss the issues, challenges and benefits in involving the service user to shape and develop services Essay

Involving the service user in shaping services continues to be an important activity within government policy. Drawing from the K303 materials critically discuss the issues, challenges and benefits in involving the service user to shape and develop services. Introduction Health and social care services strive to maintain, increase people’s wellbeing and provide the best care practice to individuals and the community. However, discrepancies arise because generalisations about what people need and how services should operate is still an everyday issue that affects the provision of services. People’s circumstances and opinions differ from one another despite having similar needs on the surface. Therefore, different kinds of support are expected. That is the main reason why people need to become participants in designing and shaping care services. When it comes to user’s involvement, policies have shaped the way social services are delivered as they represent an essential framework to the implementation of consistent and quality practices. As a result, it is utmost for frontline managers and healthcare professionals to adhere to them. However, this process is not straight forward and difficulties emerge (Book 1, pp. 27-28). This essa y will explore the issues, challenges and benefits of engaging service users in shaping and developing services. In order to do this, I will attempt to define the terms policy and service user involvement. Subsequently, I will identify the barriers faced by managers; discuss ways to overcome these challenges. And finally, the benefits of service user involvement will be identified. Policy and Practice Policy can be defined as a plan of action adopted by a person, group or government (Collins Language, 2011). In the history of health and social care, service providers have been influenced by the legacy of paternalism that developed in Victorian times. However, it was only until the 1970 s when emphasis on participation and service user involvement took placed. Through the years, the growing significance of service user involvement helped to eradicate the paternalist approach previously adopted by the government and service providers. Thus, generating a partnership-based  approach. Service user involvement or participation is listening to what people say about the services to have an impact on the way they are delivered. This has also become a key feature of government policies (Book1, p.28). In the course materials, Jane Rees made reference to this statement by emphasizing that ensuring genuine service user involvement was fundamental to her managing role at Redcar and Cleveland MIND (K303, DVD1, Band 2). It is also important to mention that service user involvement derives from two approaches –consumerist and democratic. The first approach refers to service users as customers and consumers of welfare much as they are consumers of other products. This approach, mainly developed by the state, aims to improve efficiency, economy and effectiveness of organisations and services. By drawing on the ideas and experience of service users, it is possible to improve management and decision making (Leggett et al, 1999, quoted in Course Reader, p.22). On the other hand, the democratic/citizenship approach is related to people as citizens as it was developed by users of health and social care services. This model has to do with enabling people to have more input over what happens to them in order to bring about direct change in their lives through both collective and individual action (Priestly, 1999, quoted in Course Reader, p. 22). Why is it important to adhere to policies? And what are the consequences of not adhering to them? Recognition of the importance of service user involvement is at a higher level. Service user’s view are becoming accepted by the government as an important element of evidenced based practice and a critical component when assessing the performance of health and social care agencies (DoH2000b; Scottish Office,1999, quoted in Book1, p.29). User involvement or participation is a complex, heavily politicised and value-based activity that can be related to basic ideas of best practice. At the same time, the experience developed by organisations, service users and supportive providers provides a source of principles for good practice. Although they do not guarantee success they do impact those who ignore them (Course Reader, p 24). It could be mentioned that one of the outcomes of not adhering to policies is the move away from considering the service user’s satisfaction. When an organisation does not take into account the views of the service user’s it will find itself open to criticism and it is  likely to be told to make changes (Stallard, 2011). For example, ignoring the views of service users who are involved in services again their wishes such as adults sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 (DoH, 2007) or the right of young people and children to be consulted about their views under the Children Act 1989 (DoH 2001c, quoted in Book1, p.41) could prevent valuable understanding regarding the fairness and equality of the service user’s involvement process. Also, difficulties when measuring and monitoring the quality of the services offered can be encountered when organisations and managers do not adhere to policies. Consequently, this could lead to the miss of any practice that needs to be highlighted or resolved. Moreover, not adhering to policies prevents social care organisations from being inclusive and developing a partnership with people who use the services. This has a direct effect on carers and service users as their right to have a voice and express their individual view is denied (Book1, p.37). Issues, challenges and benefits Issues Frontline staff and managers need to bear in mind that their daily job objective is to maintain a person’s well-being and quality of life. However, that is not an easy task. Taking into consideration that user involvement is paramount to develop good care practices; it is also possible to establish that many difficulties arise when this approach is put into practice. The first issue to be considered is the amount of time it takes to manage and apply the integration of service user’s views into all phases of the social care process and, not as a ‘one off’ consultation session. As an example, considering, listening and understanding children and young people’s views about their lives as well as other people who could help is a time consuming process where preparation is the key. Albeit, preparation requires time; therefore the process can result on management exercising pressure on staff to meet time deadlines. Thus, making the procedure more difficult for practitioners and service users (Book1, p. 37) Another matter that could affect the way the service is provided has to do with power dynamics. Put simply, whether managers are ready to work in conjunction with service users instead of for them and to adopt a practice-led approach (Book1,p. 37). This means that practice could be seen as a joint product where the service users  can contribute at all stages or as long as they wish to (Course Reader, p. 24). However, this may lead to power issues as managers or owners of private social care agencies might face difficulties in relation to the shift of power, resources and engaging service users successfully. On the other hand, service users may not wish to participate or are sceptical of manager’s motives (Book1, p. 37). It could also be argued that the shift of power could place the managers into a position where they feel have little power to empower people. As a result, service users may feel powerless in front of professionals and organisations and this could prevent them from willing to participate (SCIE, 2011). Other inconsistencies may be the concerns expressed b y managers in regards to service user’s expectations as these could be unrealistic, unattainable and unsatisfactory which can result in difficulties to decide appropriate aims(Book1, pp. 37-38).On top of that, managers attitudes towards the service users competence in making decisions can affect the relationship between both parties. Managers may fear saying the wrong thing, exposing the service user’s lack of knowledge or being encountered by with anger or criticism (Harding and Oldman, 1996; Morris, 1994, quoted in Book1, p. 38). Furthermore, it is also worth to mention that in the mainstream of service users involvement to decide ‘who to involve’ represents a dilemma as well. A manager might want to find a ‘representative’ service user. However, this imposes great difficulties due to several reasons such as the diversity of service users groups in terms of culture, race, sexuality and in some cases age (older people or young groups) and different disabilities. On top of that, minority groups, for instance, can feel marginalised as they may feel under or unrepresented in the participation process. It could also be mentioned that marginalisation can occur due to lack of knowledge about user participation too (SCIE, 2011). Challenges As a result of participation challenges have emerged for both managers and service users. Firstly, elements such as time, support and financial costs represent a challenge for managers. To address these issues, it is necessary to recognise that it is imperative to allow sufficient time and support help to build trust between managers and service users. Support refers to the  provision of any help, encouragement, skills and assistant (Course Reader, p.27) Moreover, minimising the costs of participation for service users by paying for their time and travelling expenses could be appropriate. A budget should be allocated to finance the costs of those service users who have a real commitment to participate (Course Reader, p. 26). Secondly, managers encounter challenges in regards to monitoring and evaluating techniques. For example, sending questionnaires to service users is a good way to get feedback. However, a problem is experienced when questionnaires are not returned. A possible solution to this problem would be to ask the service users to fill the questionnaires at the end of a meeting, for example, to ensure they come back or to make a commitment to collect feedback. Thirdly, it is worth to mention that even when service groups reunite with professionals it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is proactive participation. In some cases, participants don’t contribute to the communication process. This could be triggered by services filing away reports about what people said. As people do not get to see the information they do not know what has been said by others or if any changes have been made. Consequently, they are reluctant to have an input as they may feel their opinions are not taken into account (Course Reader, p. 30).A course of action could be to write reports and provide feedback to user groups. These reports should inform what changes have been made in relation to the information given as well as an explanation to why chan ges have not been made (Course Reader, p. 30). Benefits Participation provides exclusive advantages for managers, service users and carers. Among the benefits for managers is the acquisition of new knowledge and experience obtained from service user’s engagement. This knowledge could help managers to understand (or improve) the different methods for involving service users and carers in the individual decision making. Moreover, this could prove to be beneficial for the development of an organisation’s structure when it comes to making changes or improving services that are being delivered. The benefits for service users and carers can be associated not only to an individual level but to a community level as well. That is to say, service users and carers can benefit on a personal level by  increasing confidence as they get to know their rights and how to access services. Service users can also take part in planning care that fulfills their individual needs. Moreover, carers might improve their skills and gain job satisfacti on as they are delivering better tailored care. They can also develop the necessary skills, experience and knowledge regarding the importance of participation trough training (Course Reader, p. 44). Conclusion Health and social care services policies have changed through the years. Current policies emphasise on the implementation of consistent and quality practices through service user involvement. Nevertheless, as there is no single user’s view managers face a series of practical issues and challenges when implementing participation. To tackle these problems, managers must find methods to address these challenges effectively. By doing this, what is considered a challenge can be turned into a series of benefits as successful user involvement proves to be a useful tool to identify issues, make changes and improve the service provided. References Collins Language (2011) [online] http://www.collinslanguage.com/results.aspx?context=3&reversed=False&action=define&homonym=1&text=policy (Accessed 3rd November, 2011) Department of Health (2007) Mental Health Act 1983[online] http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/publicationsandstadistics/legislation/Actsandbills/DH_4002034 (Accessed 17th November, 2011) Stallard, D. (5th November, 2011, 14:07) ‘Block 1Forum Activity’, forum message to K303 2011. The Open University (2003) K303, Managing Care in Context, DVD 1, Band 2 ‘A meeting of Minds’, Milton Keynes, The Open University. The Open University (2003) K303, Managing Care in Context, Chapter 2, ‘What service users say about services: the implications for managers’, Unit 2.1 ‘Introduction’, Milton Keynes, The Open University. The Open University (2003) K303, Managing Care in Context, Chapter 2.