Obesity Essay Introduction Essay Example for Free

Obesity Essay Introduction Essay In the process of evolution, a human body has adapted to accumulate a supply of nutrients in the amount of food for expending it in conditions of forced absence or restriction of provision. This kind of evolutionary advantage allowed us to survive in difficult times. In ancient period, fatness was considered as a sign of well-being, prosperity, fertility, and health. An example is the sculpture of Venus of Willendorf, dated 22nd millennium BC. E. A careful attitude to own weight is a trend of the present time. The lifestyle of a modern person is often far from what doctors and elementary common sense recommend. Constant stress and inability to have a good rest lead to one of the simplest and cheapest ways to relax like absorption of high-calorie food. As a result, a wide-scale disease in megacities becomes obesity, but it can be prevented by conducting regular laboratory diagnostics. Obesity is a widespread illness, characterized by excessive development of adipose tissue. The problem frequently occurs with age, when motor activity decreases, and a number of vital body systems fail. The genesis of fatness is mostly caused by a violation of the balance between energy intake and its expenditure of the body. Excess calories, i.e. not consumed by an organism, are converted to grease, which accumulates in fat stores. We are talking about subcutaneous tissue, epiploon, abdominal wall, internal organs, etc. An increase in fat stores leads to addition in body weight and disruption of many systems. The basis of an appearance of primary obesity is an alimentary factor associated with an enhanced energy value of the diet at low energy costs. The mentioned type develops as an output of the predominance in a menu of carbohydrates and animal grease or disruption of dietary patterns, which often carries a family predisposition. Calories contained in fats contribute more to weight gain than those involved in proteins and carbohydrates. Hypodinamy significantly reduces an ability of muscles to oxidize grease. Secondary fatness accompanies such hereditary syndromes as Babinsky-Frohlichs disease, Gelino syndrome, Lawrence-Myan-Barde-Biddle syndrome, etc. Symptomatic obesity may also happen against a background of various cerebral lesions. Similar changes in eating behavior occur as a result of the violation of a hypothalamic-pituitary regulation, which is responsible for controlling behavioral responses. Their genesis is also facilitated by a number of factors, such as a low-activity lifestyle, genetically caused disorders of enzyme activity, errors in nature or dietary, some endocrine pathologies, stress, lack of sleep, and the use of psychotropic or hormonal drugs. Obesity’s presence within a certain patient entails the need for a number of laboratory tests necessary for finding out the reasons and an appointment of adequate therapy. Analyzes allow you to assess liver function, parameters of fat and carbohydrate metabolism, a state of the reproductive system, the functioning of the thyroid gland. Thus, every person suffering from fatness could have own motivation for weight loss: cosmetic effect, reducing the risk to health, improving efficiency, a desire to wear smaller clothes or a wish to look good. However, goals and its rates should be real and directed, first of all, to reduce dangers of obesity-related complications. With hereditary predisposition, at the age of 40 years, in conditions of hypodinamy, it needs to limit consumption of carbohydrates, fats, transit to the diet of protein and plant foods. For the prevention of obesity, a person with a normal weight is enough to spend calories and energy as much as he or she gets them during the day.

Merger And Acquisitions Of Multinational Enterprises Economics Essay

Merger And Acquisitions Of Multinational Enterprises Economics Essay Growing through MA is one of the main ways in which MNEs seek to expand globally. Often, however, expectations outrun reality and the difficulties of merging two companies are underestimated. Examine a cross-border takeover or MA of your two cases choices discussing the balance between the benefits it has generated and difficulties that had to be overcome. Introduction: Globalisation has influenced by major changes in the business world over the past decade. Companies have been searching for competitive advantage in a worldwide scale. Companies are forced to follow their customers- who are going global- as they respond to the competition that is worldwide in scale. Globalisation in combination with other trends such as deregulation, privatisation and corporate restructuring has spurred an unprecedented surge in cross-border merger and acquisition activity. The recent figures in business clearly indicate that cross border mergers and acquisitions have become a fundamental characteristic of the global business landscape. Within the globalisation context, that has opened up a new world of corporate opportunities, accompanied by increasing risks and challenges, rapid changes and volatility, M and A has been an accelerating phenomenon- a business mantra- for companies driven by the urge to survive, evolve and grow. But the big question is whether these business mergers and acquisitions are pulling off as well as expected or intended, through the realizations of goals, there by achieving projected/desired levels of synergy. Background of the study: The mere process of M and A cannot guarantee success. It is only a facilitator and post merger operating performances depend largely on how well post merger opportunities are capitalized and resources are utilized. In the early 90s there was a significant awakening in this sector to become more competitive and exploit opportunities on a global playing field through M and As and other strategic alliances. As a result of the liberalization measures that lessened governmental control, regulations and trade restrictions, there has been a spurt of M and A activity in the recent past a manifestation of the corporate response to the greater freedom to modernize , expand and diversify. A liberal economic policy provided the stimulus and favorable atmosphere for companies to upgrade their technological and production capabilities (economies of scale)and improve their cost effectiveness and competency by merging with related or subsidiary units. During this period, M and As were also a significant method of foreign investment. The services sector, mainly the financial (including the banking sector) and communications services, leads this trend, with the chemical industry being the leader in the manufact uring sector. M and As are poised to rapidly increase in the near future as they provide acquiring companies the cutting edge amidst global competition. Beena (2004) says that the new industrial policy also brought about a shift in corporate strategies, in terms of share holding patterns, adoption of product differentiation, etc. Studies by Khanna (1998) show that, as a consequence of withdrawing all monopoly restraints in acquisitions, several markets have become oligopolistic and reduced competition. Many of these Mergers and Acquisitions involved companies of the same business groups, aimed at increasing control levels to safeguard against possibilities of takeover. Merger and Acquisition trends and patterns can be theoretically linked to studies of market power and reactions, access to markets or technologies, managerial ego etc(Cantwell and Santangelo,2002) There are many theories on mergers and acquisitions emerging from the studies of international business, industrial organization and financial economics, that include the category on synergy which assumes that the merger creates a total value that is greater than the sum of the values of individual firms where as the hubris theory proposes that value resulting from the merger is zero. Economic theory provides two contrasting perspectives regarding the efficiency and performance of mergers and acquisitions as corporate restructuring strategies- The value maximizing theory which proposes that corporate mergers as value -enhancing activities where managers work for shareholders wealth maximization goal of the firm(Franks and Hariss,1989) second is the managerial theory which proposes merger activities as an extension of managers own personal interests and wealth maximization prestige of managing a bigger post-merger business entity(Roll,1986) and as a platform of corporate control where managerial teams compete for the rights to manage resources(Jensen and Ruback,1983). Drivers and motives of M and As are to gain market power, reducing new product development risks, gaining access to innovative capabilities, maximizing efficiency and reshaping competitive scope.(Hitt et al.,2007) Other reasons include overcoming finance issues, that firms face due to information asymmetry (Fluck and Lynch,1999) Kumar(2009) argues that the post-merger profitability, solvency and assets turnover of acquiring companies show no improvement when compared with pre-merger figures, and hence mergers do not usually lead to improvement in the financial performance of the acquirer. The results of his study show that mergers are not aimed at maximizing wealth of owners and suggest that managers should focus on post-merger integration issues to generate synergy rather than achieving bigger corporate size, in the pursuit of hidden agendas. Beena(2004) emphasizes that one of the main objectives of M and A is to increase equity, which could be further leveraged to borrow resources for modernization and up gradation. According to Vardhana (2001) the population of all firms, in a finite sample, would change since there would be new entry through merger of an established firm with an incumbent and likewise, the merger of an incumbent would lead to its exit from the industry. This firm restructuring, a process taking place primarily through mergers, makes it difficult to choose a sample of firms that can be analysed with long-run data to isolate the effect of a merger. Therefore the short-run data for a merging firm would be more appropriate, which at the same time is long enough for pre- and post-merger period, so as to capture the merger effects. One bottleneck in assessing post merger performance is that the target company ceases to exist. Hence, for a more accurate measure of the merger effect, some post merger performance studies have isolated it by adopting the model that compares performance of the merged entity with that of control groups consisting of acquirer and target before merger and matching sample of units that did not involve in merger but have similar size and belong to the same industry. Also, to isolate the impacts of mergers and acquisitions which are influenced by several factors existing that are dynamic, a better model would have been the regression to norm frame work developed by Mueller (1986), by which analysis of regression of profits and regression of persistence of profits to norm can be carried out comparing to the industry standard as well or the control group. This would help to capture the impacts of M and As, with respect to size, pre-deal profitability, size, competition etc. Other variables like Market power/Market share, Inventory turnover, export intensity, capacity utilization, price -cost margin; etc could also have been included in the study. Kumar(2009) argues that the post-merger profitability, solvency and assets turnover of acquiring companies show no improvement when compared with pre-merger figures, and hence mergers do not usually lead to improvement in the financial performance of the acquirer. Overall, my opinion is that the authors have been rather vague in their conclusion and failed to establish convincingly that mergers and acquisitions have any significant positive impact on corporate performance, to a large extent because of the sample limitations as well as the limitations of financial data and their interpretations. But the research paper contributes to the understanding of M and As in India and their relative performances, although in a limited way. It also emphasizes that synergy can be generated in the long run; by optimizing resources and that the success of M and A deals depend on proper deal valuation, futuristic planning and effective management. Research similar to the one being reviewed has been conducted on mergers and that occurred almost in the same time frame, during the post liberalization period in India. But the results do not corroborate with each other. The term merger has been broadly used beyond its technical implications, to discuss the merging between the acquirer and the target in some acquisition cases too. However I have noticed that the samples of firms or cases of mergers taken for most of these researches were quite different as there were very few companies that were common to all the samples (of studies conducted by different researchers on the topic), within almost the same time frame. This disparity would inevitably yield different results, that cannot be co-measured and only a trend relating to the respective samples or cases can be analysed. The possibility of self-selection bias arising cannot be ruled out, because of the selection of samples comprising survivor firms that are existing during the p re-merger and post merger period under study. Also as pointed out earlier, results obtained using the operating performance approach, can be influenced by the limitations of financial measures to capture the impacts of mergers and acquisitions as a whole , as well as the intrinsic limitations of the financial ratios themselves. Some of these ratios do not have a benchmark to fit all industries, capturing only quantitative factors and not the qualitative factors. Also these ratios might vary and have varying significance across different industry types. This would give a limited perspective of the impacts of mergers and acquisitions. The more number of parameters used, the better the perspective and the conclusion. However this brings up the issue of comparability and co-measurability between results of researches on this topic, unless all studies use the same parameters. Falkner and Pitkethly (2001) say that there is an increasingly positive approach to mergers and acquisitions than before. Earlier MA was seen as a false activity but now they are welcomed by the government as well. Cosh and Hughes (1996) are skeptical about the merger activities and talks about the need for governments regulations over the merger and acquisitions in the light of U.K. economy. They argue that everything should come under legal scrutiny. Kang and Johanson(2001) talks about the role of globalization in promoting mergers and acquisitions and how mergers and acquisitions help companies to survive in the competitive environment. They see merger and acquisition as a positive business tactic in the competitive world. Ahmed and Glaister(2008) have done an extensive research on the topic and have pointed out the recent trends in CBMA in the U.K. They have identified the various driving forces behind the cross border merger and acquisitions in the companies in UK. Benefits: The driving forces underlying the trend of CBMAs are complex and vary by sector. One of the most significant driving forces is technological change. In addition, changes to government policies influence CBMAs by opening up opportunities and increasing the availability of favourable targets for mergers and acquisitions (MAs). Other forces are market drivers, industry-level drivers and firm-level drivers. The scale of CBMAs involving UK companies has increased rapidly in recent years. The area analysis shows that European Union (EU) companies are the most significant target for UK companies followed by the USA and Canada. In terms of distribution within sectors, UK companies tend to acquire more manufacturing companies in the EU, the USA and Canada than in the Asia-Pacific region. In contrast, UK companies tend to acquire more service sector companies in the Asia-Pacific region than in the EU, the USA and Canada. Example: On January 30, 2007, Tata Steel, part of Indias Tata Group, has purchased 100% stake in the Corus Group at 608 p. per share. Acquisition Type : Indian Company acquiring a foreign company. Tatas overtake the Mukesh Ambani- Reliance Group to become Indias largest business house by this takeover. Tatas, who have staked their century old reputation, will certainly leave no stone unturned in making this acquisition a success. Benefits: Triples Tata Steels capacity to almost 28m tonnes from 8.7 million. Gives it access to high- value European market. Corus has highly developed RD capabilities. Dangers: Tatas have paid a heavy price. It now needs to service a very large debt burden Integration can be a problem in such acquisitions because of both distance and culture Challenges ached: Financials will hinge on the future and the behavior of the steel prices Muthuraman is confident about more consumption from India and China over the next 50 years Labor is another issue as British Union, which represents 80% of UK based workers, warned against trimming down the labor force Post merger integration of human resources would be a Herculean task as acquisition of this scale in a developed country by an Indian company has not been seen before Cultural integration is another issue- retaining key talent and imbibing confidence in the workforce The merger may take 5-6 years to realize its full potentials. But these will certainly a trend-setter as to what will happen, not just in the Indian steel industry, but across all sectors. Discussion: The evidence can be found from many sources like journals and articles that point out the recent trends in Cross border merger and acquisitions. A sneak peek into the business world also reveals the relevance and importance of CBMA s in the new global economy. There are many examples that can be analysed to show the recent trends in CBMA s. An in depth study into the recent trends in CBMA reveal that presently, companies in UK are in the forefront of CBMA s both in the case of value of Mergers and Acquisitions and the numbers. CBMA s occurred between manufacturing companies in the US and EU, while in the Asia pacific region, the service sector companies merged with the UK companies. These are all evidences for recent trends in cross border merger and acquisitions. Conclusion: Companies are expanding beyond their domestic markets to be a part of the global market place. In doing so, companies can choose to export, establish new operations or acquire existing companies. CBMAs are now a common activity among the companies. UK companies are in the forefront of CBMA s in both the numbers of MA s and their values. Between 1996 and 2005, UK companies acquired 7,026 foreign companies. In terms of value, UK companies acquired  £520 billion worth of foreign companies over the period. The area wise analysis reveals that EU companies are the most significant target for UK companies followed by the USA and Canada while Asia pacific region also showing an increase in CBMAs. In terms of sector distribution, UK companies tend to acquire more manufacturing companies in EU, USA and Canada and more service sector companies in the Asia pacific region. High technology and Industrials are the most active industrial sector groupings in the EU, USA and Canada while financial s ector was the most active industrial sector in the Asia-pacific region. In short, we can say that while UK companies acquired EU and USA technology over the last decade, financial services were also acquired by UK companies in the Asia pacific region. The driving forces behind CBMAs can be grouped into factors at the macro-economic, market, industry and firm-level as well as technological and government-related factors. Technological change acts both as a pull and push factor; it promotes international expansion by reducing communication and transport costs; it creates new business and markets by rapidly changing market conditions or by increasing the costs of RD. The speed of technological development along with the technical competence and market knowledge, flexibility and ability to innovate are increasingly promoting the CBMAs. Companies are searching for partners from whom these tangible assets can be obtained. Government policies including liberalization, privatization and regulatory reforms influence CBMA s by opening up opportunities and increasing the availability of favourable MA targets. Economic fluctuations like recession or boom can also affect the level of global MA activity and its regional focus. Growth prospects, market structure and competition in the market promote CBMA. Slow growth, over-capacity and increased competition in global markets typically drive industrial restructuring and often make MAs preferable to Greenfield investments. This report tried to analyze the recent trends in CBMAs in U.K. To conclude, it can be said that CBMAs by UK companies are increasing by time and more and more companies are becoming aware of the benefits of CBMA. There is a need for a well planned strategy among these companies and that can lead to cost effective CBMA s leading to the benefit of the economy.

Teacher Unions Effects Upon Education. Essay -- Education, Teachers T

When originally created, teacher unions were a noble cause meant to prevent teachers from being taken advantage of. Fight from the beginning, teachers unions and schools have been in conflict over several issues. Now though, as a result schools’ eagerness to cut costs, along with the union’s unwillingness to allow teachers to be fired, the student is becoming collateral damage. This conflict that exists between the teachers unions and school administration must be resolved through mediation, focus on students, and stronger laws to prevent teachers suing districts. At one point, America had schools that it was proud of. There are many areas where teachers and school unions will likely never see eye to eye; the school districts place the student as their primary concern, and the teachers unions place the teachers as their primary concern. Just as Joel Klein once said, â€Å"You can never appreciate how irrational the system is until you’ve lived it.† (Q td. in Brill, 30 ). Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the Washington D.C. schools said â€Å"tenure is the holy grail of teachers unions† (Qtd. In Dillon, 1); teacher unions treat tenure as one of their most prized possessions because it is, tenure is and always will be vitally important towards the goal of the union. The tenure system offers teachers, who have been teachers for longer times (typically 2-3 years), the assurance that they will not unjustly lose their jobs. Why then, does the tenure system protect these teachers? The simple answer is that the tenure system protects the majority of teachers, and that is what the union wants. The tenure system is outdated; Michelle Rhee is a former chancellor of public schools in Washington. She made drastic changes to the schooling system... ... protecting these teachers and would not allow the school to rid of them. It appears that when a Union wished for a legal matter to be expedited, they have no problems expediting it, however when the school is in favor of the legal issue, â€Å"it takes between two and five years for cases to be heard by an arbitrator†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Brill, 3). When you consider the thing that teachers are callable of doing with the protection of tenure, it is surprising that the number of fired tenured teachers is so small. Our public schooling system needs to develop a backbone; we need to stand up for what we know must be changed. No longer should teachers enjoy benefits and pensions limited only to the teaching profession. No other occupation offers tenure and benefits, and pensions as does teaching. That’s because the other occupations have long since eliminated those as a cost saving measure.

Kurt Vonneguts War Experiences and its Effects on the Barnhouse Effect :: essays papers

Kurt Vonneguts War Experiences and its Effects on the Barnhouse Effect Kurt Vonnegut's War Experiences how it contributes to my understanding of the "Barnhouse Effect" Kurt Vonnegut’s war experiences had a great impact on his life, which greatly contributes to the readers understanding of the "Barnhouse Effect." His war experiences are reflected quite vividly through his writing of the "Barnhouse Effect." This short story reflects "the human horrors during war, and the de-humanization of modern men and women, and the loss of humane values in a society dedicated to technological progress." (Modern Stories, p. 408) The Barnhouse Effect is a name that is created by the press. The press came up with this name from Professor Arthur Barnhouse’s character in the "Barnhouse Effect." They call the professor’s phenomenon the barnhouse effect. Professor Barnhouse, had come up with a different name for his phenomenon. He called it the "Dynamopsychian." "Dynamopsychian means force, and the power of the mind. In the story, the narrator explains, in more detail, how Professor Barnhouse relates his phenomenon to war. "As a weapon, then, Dynamopsychism has an impressive advantage over bacteria and atomic bombs, beyond the fact that it cost nothing to use: it enables the professor to single out critical individuals and objects instead of slaughtering whole populations in the process of maintaining international equilibrium." (p. 410). According to this quotation, Dynamopsychism is a very powerful weapon that only professor Barnhouse had. The professor had thoughts that would flash through his mind before they actually happened. His mind is a powerful weapon, which no one else possessed. In the story, Barnhouse says, "the same thought train had flashed through his mind just before he threw the dice." (p. 411). It was that thought train which aligned the professor’s brain cells into what had become the most powerful weapon on Earth. It began with a simple mental exercise during an army crap game, which soon escalates into a worldwide threat. At least, that’s what the FBI thinks when they raid the Professor’s office and put him under investigation. Professor Barnhouse is asked to use his new power as the ultimate national defense weapon. War hungry generals, Russian spies and the FBI get into the act as Professor Barnhouse shows what the real power of his mind actually is.

How Tesco and Oxfam businesses are organised Essay

Tesco Tesco’s Hierarchical structure Tesco’s has a hierarchical organisation structure. Hierarchical structure has several level’s arranged in a treelike construction with the person with most power at the top and the lowest at the bottom E.G. Managing director at the top all the way to the bottom which is the quality guard manager and financial accountants. Hierarchical structure is mainly used in big companies like Tesco. The disadvantages of the hierarchical structure are that if the financial accountants have a problem it would take its time to get the message to the right person which is the managing director. So making decisions will take long to make as it would take a long time to go up the hierarchical structure to put the idea in place. Mainly the first instructions in a hierarchical structure will have to be the managing director because the person has the most power and be able to control the company and it will make its way down to the bottom. Oxfam Oxfam hierarchical structure Oxfam organisation structure is flatter than Tesco as there aren’t much of people working and organising the company. Oxfam organisational structure is geographical as they work around the world in and with alot of countries helping the less fortunate. The charity is controlled/run by a chairwoman who is in charge of a number of trustees who makes the main decisions in the company, So Oxfam structure is flat and it doesn’t take long. Whereas Tesco has to makes its way up in the hierarchy structure. Oxfam tries to keep the number of managers down and have more volunteers up. This is because Oxfam tries to keep the costs down as most of the trustees and volunteers don’t get paid.

Ethical issues related to reproducation Essay

Assisted Reproduction Technology is a new found system to aid infertile couples to get children. It is also used in transgender couples and genetic concerns in the family. The examples of assisted reproduction technology include invitro-fertilization embryo transfer, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, gamete intrafalllopian transfer, zygote intrafallopian transfer and intrauterine insemination. It is a practice that has caused wide controversy from the ethical point of view. There are many ethical issues surrounding artificial reproduction. Many religious organizations condemn the practice as it goes against the religious beliefs. Most religions believe that God is the sole creator of life and determiner of fertility of an individual. Therefore, the practice is viewed as one that is trying to supersede the power and belief in God. The element of surrogate parenting in assisted reproduction is also a highly thorny issue in the society. The practice of sperm egg donation is also very emotive. The main protagonist in this debate is the religious organizations and their beliefs and practices (Gillian, 2003). Surrogate parenting is an arrangement in which an infertile married couple contracts a fertile woman to undergo gestation on their behalf and surrender the child after birth. This is described as a non-nuclear family arrangement in that the family allows a third party into their family relationship to play the role of a birth mother. Surrogate parenting raises various ethical questions. There are various forms of surrogate parenting. These include traditional and gestational. In traditional surrogacy, the mother shares genetic information as the child since she acts as a sperm recipient. The gestational surrogacy involves insemination with fertile ovum of the infertile couple. Therefore, she does not share genetic information as the child. The ethical dilemma that exists in surrogate parenting is whereby commercial surrogacy is viewed as exploitative to poor single women. The woman is viewed as a mere incubator while her money is siphoned by the surrogate agencies. The child is traumatized on discovering that the mother raising him/her is not her biological mother due to different genetic information. This leads to acrimony in the family. Some organizations claim that surrogacy leads to commoditization of babies as mere goods. This shows a lack of respect to the human being as a whole (Gillian, 2003). Surrogate parenting causes controversy in the traditional definition of a family unit. A family is viewed as made of mother, father and children who are genetically related. Surrogacy allows a third party into the traditional nuclear family. This distorts the meaning completely. This is especially so in traditional form of surrogate parenting. In this form, the surrogate mother is just not the gestational bearer of the child, but she also shares genetic information with the child. The family will be in a dilemma whether to inform the child of his gestation and parenting lest he/she finds out. Such information is likely to break the family unit (Markens, 2007). Commercial surrogate parenting has been viewed as exploitative. Young single and poor girls are chosen to act as surrogate mothers. The agency that contracts them does not care about their well-being but is interested in profiteering from their services. These girls are paid 10000-150000 dollars for their services. Court cases have been filed where these mothers reject the money to take custody of the children. This is the exploitative nature of the practice (Markens, 2007). Doctors place multiple eggs into the womb of a woman in artificial reproduction. The medical significance of this practice is to reduce the proportion and margin of error. Statistics shows that most of the eggs implanted into a woman do not get implanted and are aborted by the mother. As such, the practice of inserting multiple eggs is to increase the likelihood of implantation or fertilization of the eggs. The other concern is the cost of artificial reproduction technology. The technology costs highly to the partners and the insurance companies. Multiple eggs are inserted by the healthcare professionals as a means of cost saving and cost reduction in fertility treatment. This addresses the cost that would be incurred if one egg failed. Multiple implantations bring with it the dilemma of multiple pregnancy complications and multiple birth costs. The dilemma with the practice is that a healthcare professional is legally mandated to abort some of the implanted fetuses upon informed consent from the parents. This practice is called multi fetal pregnancy reduction or selective abortion. The medical rationale behind embryo reduction is the fact that there are many risks associated with carrying multiple pregnancies to the mother. There is the risk of in-uteri death of the fetus, premature delivery and retardation. Any pregnancy with more than three fetuses is an iatrogenic complication of artificial reproduction (Simo, 2002). Selective abortion is moral as it is done in the interest of the mother and the family. Informed consent has to be sought from the partner, and they must reserve the right to select the embryos that will be reduced. However, in a perfectly health mother, selective abortion is not advisable rather the doctor should practice watchful waiting on the patient. Selective abortion is done to reduce child impairment if he/she is born prematurely. The practice is a morally justified option for the parent. This is because the quality of life of the child born and the economical and psychological burden on the parents to support a mentally retarded child. Despite religious, social and cultural perceptions on selective abortion, it is a perfectly moral practice done in the interest of the family. The sanctity of life must indeed be observed and respected so much as the quality of the baby’s life. The grounds that lay the foundation for the decision to selectively abort an embryo are based on the moral and financial ability of the family to take care of complication of multiple pregnancies: especially premature babies (Simo, 2002). The society is obliged to support families that have multiple babies born prematurely, with defects or mental retardation. These parents are under immense pressure to provide for and raise these children. The society is obliged to support these families in whatever means possible. The immediate extensive family plays a huge role in supporting these parents morally and financially. Premature children need to be loved by everyone in the family and external community. Financial assistance is vital to cater for constant hospitalization of these children. Children with mental retardation and prematurity need constant visitations for medical checkup to ensure that they grow and mature like other children. The community is obliged to offer financial support to these families. Through various community forums and organizations, the locals can take care of these children and accord them equal rights enjoyed as other healthy children. The community may also set up special schools with special teachers to guide these children as they develop. The local government and the federal government are also obliged to support families with disabilities. The government can enact of laws and policies that offer incentives to these parents and those that govern the development of these children. The local government is also mandated to establish institutions that will take care of these children as they grow as they belong to children with special need (Gillian, 2003). Abortion is a highly controversial moral subject worldwide. There are proponents of abortion who claim the practice is done to safeguard the health of the mother and the dignity of girls who have been sexually assaulted. Whereas, there are the opponents who argue that the vice is against the universal right to life and respect of life. There are various ethical issues with abortion. Ethical issues arise due to the moral dilemma. The reasons for procuring an abortion include not being able to raise the child at the moment or irresponsible parents. Such scenarios would warrant an abortion to avoid future suffering of the child. Some mothers claim that childbearing will interfere with their careers, or they have reached their limit of child bearing. The moral dilemma is the sanctity of life. Religious backgrounds claim that life begins after fertilization and terminating it at any stage is paramount to murder. With such personification, the fetus is entitled to the right of life as any other human being (Hinman, 2013). As such, they argue against abortion. However, medically, health professionals are obliged to abort so as to preserve the life of a mother if her pregnancy is complicated. Therefore, abortion is a highly controversial moral issue between the ‘pro-life’ and the ‘prochoice’ ? References Committee on Organ Procurement and Transplantation Policy, Institute of Medicine. (2001). Organ Procurement and Transplantation: Assessing Current Policies and the Potential Impact of the DHHS Final Rule. New York: National Academies Press. Gillian, T. (2003). Mixed blessings: ethical issues in assisted conception. Journal of Reproductive and Social Medicine, 34-35. Hinman, L. (2013). Abortion: an oveerview of the ethical issues. University of San Diego. Landlau, R. , Blythe, & Eric. (2004). Third Party Assisted Conception across Cultures: Social, Legal, and Ethical Perspectives. London: Jessica Kingsley Publications. Markens, S. (2007). Surrogate Motherhood and the Politics of Reproduction. Berkley: University of Carlifornia Press. Simo, V. (2002). Parental Responsibility and the Morality of Selective Abortion. Journal of Reproductive Health, 463-484.

Computerisation in a business like Craven Plc Essay

Plotters: A device designed to produce charts, drawings, maps and other forms of graphical information on paper. The images can be produced by pens, electro-statically, or ink jets. Storage Methods There are two different forms of storage available these are main storage and backing storage. Main Storage: This consists of the Hard disk drive (HDD) and the floppy disk drive. These are storage facilities present within the computer. Information can be saved onto the HDD ready to be opened at some future date. Application software packages and programmes are also stored on the hard disk. The average PC will have an internal HDD of at least 6Gb. The floppy disk drive is another type of main storage. It uses floppy disks to store information in a similar way to a hard drive. Backing Storage: The performance of a computer system can be improved by the addition of more memory. If there is too little memory then more frequent access to the hard disk is required and this will slow down the overall system performance. Therefore many computer applications require quick, direct access to individual records within a file. For this reason, we need backing storage. Backing storage comes in various forms for example compact disks and floppy disks. Backing storage is a portable and convenient way of saving information. To reduce the risk of data loss it is wise to save information on the computers hard drive and make a copy onto a disk or another type of backing storage for insurance purposes. Types of backing storage:   Floppy disks: The most common storage device available, these provide extremely cheap storage and have a capacity of 1. 5 Mb.   Compact Disk (CD-ROM): These have been used for some years as storage devices for computer software. It only accesses information which is already stored on it and is able to store 650 Mb of information.   Zip Drives: A storage device that has become popular over the last few years because it offers the convenience and portability of a floppy disk, combined with a 100 Mb capacity. CD-R and CD-RW:The difference being that CD-R disks can only have data saved to them once, While CD-RW can be used in the same manner as other storage devices having data saved to them on a re-usable basis.   DVD (digital versatile disc) using the same basic principles as the CD, DVD packs the data more densely and can store 4. 7Gb compared with the CD’s 650Mg, can hold 133 minutes of video, with Dolby surround sound. Data pens: A new storage device that plugs into the computers USP drive. These are small and compact and have a capacity of 80Mb. Magnetic Tape: Convenient and cheap medium for backing up hard disks onto computers. Mostly used for mainframe computers for storing information for a long duration. Magnetic tapes will not be suitable for a small company like Craven Plc. Data Protection: Craven Plc must comply with the data protection act in order to hold personal information of customers. The data protection act works in two ways. It gives you certain rights. It also says those who record and use personal information must be open about how the information is used and must follow the eight principles for good handling. The eight principles were put in place to make sure that your information is handled properly. They say that data must be: 1. Fairly and lawfully processed. 2. Processed for limited purposes. 3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive. 4. Accurate. 5. Not kept for longer than is necessary. 6. Processed in line with your rights. 7. Secure, and 8. Not transferred to countries without adequate protection. Micro computers: Micro computers include personal computers and laptop computers, they are usually equipped with hard disk, floppy disk drive, between 1 and 32 megabytes of memory, a keyboard and a VDU unit. Microcomputers will be suitable to fulfil the needs of Craven Plc. Mainframe Computers: These are large systems that can hold vast amounts of data. Mainframe computers occupy a whole floor of a fair sized building. These powerful mainframe computers are present in very large companies storing huge amounts of data on to disk. Mainframe computers cost tens of thousands of pounds, therefore they are not suitable for a small business like Craven Plc. File Server: This is a specially configured microcomputer to control the exchange of files between network users. A file server also has more memory and disk storage than normal microcomputers. These classifications of computers are usually based on physical size, speed, processing capabilities, memory size, disc storage, capacities and cost. Direct and Sequential Access: Direct access devices can go directly to the file or record. For example a CD can go directly to track number 10. Sequential access devices have to run through the file sequentially, for instance, if we want track 10 on a cassette, The cassette moves from the beginning from track 1 to 9 until it comes to track 10. 4) Proposed purchases and prices of equipment 2x Sony Intel 2. 6GHZ DVD CDRW Laptop   256Mb RAM, 40Gb Hard Drive   DVD/CDRW Drive   15 inch TPT screen i 899 each = i 1798 4x Packard Bell 6111 Intel Pentium 42. 8GHZ processor and 15† TFT monitor   Intel P4 2. 8 GHz processor 512 Mb RAM   160 GHb Hard Drive i 1199 each =i 4796 4x PacKard Bell 5050 and Xp2600+ PC and 17† CRT monitor   Athlon Xp 2600 & processor   256Mb RAM. 60 Gb hard Drive i 549 each =i 2196 4x Hewlet Packard DJ 9300 A3 Desktop printer i 279 each =i 1116 3x Hewlet Packard scanner i 99 each =i 396 Network- Windows 2000 professional i 3449 Web Designer Approx 3000to4000 Training costs i 2000 Specialist soft ware – Sage Accounts i 2000 Web Train Video Conferencing i 1000 Total cost i 22751 5) Proposed method of change over from manual to the new computerised systems Before the change over can take place an extensive training programme needs to take place. This may take several months to train the current workforce in the correct operating procedures of the new system. To ensure information will not be lost in transition the old manual method needs to be in place for the first 2 months along side the new computerised system. In the unlikely case of system collapse information and data will still be on hand. This change over will inevitably endure a small cost of training and staff development. 6) Procedure to transfer the payroll from the old to the new system Payroll is something Craven Plc cannot afford to get wrong. Therefore manual systems need to be in place for 3-4 months along side the new computerised sage accounts system. This will again ensure against loss of data.