Asia History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Asia History - Essay Example Same holds true for Africans and Americans. In fact, there is little difference between Europeans and Americans. Many people in the two continents conventionally have similar way of living. Most of the tribes in African states have exactly same style of living, traditions and culture. Many even retain the same financial status. Such trends are least likely to be observed in Asia. In Asia, people generally tend to associate with one another on the basis of some similarity. Religion is largely considered as a means of association irrespective of the difference of race, ethnicity or origin. People tend to develop irremovable differences with people even in their own race on the basis of religion. Two Asians, one from India and the other from Pakistan might look exactly the same apparently, but the two are very different from each other in every day life. This is because the way of life of the two people is governed by the religions they belong to. Let’s assume that the Indian is a Hindu and the Pakistani is a Muslim. The vastness of distance between the beliefs the two of them hold can be estimated from the fact that the former worships a cow while the latter slaughters it, and both of them have religious reasons for doing so. Similar examples can be quoted while comparing Pakistanis to Chinese, Chinese to Srilankans and Iranis to Russians. Apart from religion, other fundamental causes of differences among Southeast Asian countries are political systems and differing sizes of population (Pope, n.d., p. 2). This can, hence, be stated that religion plays a fundamental role in deciding the relations between a vast majority of Asians. This is because many in-flowing religions have had influence on the already existing ones in Asia from time to time. Asia’s history is much influenced by religions. Buddhism has long been the religion of Asians. The teachings

Whom do you admire more as a leader Essay Example for Free

Whom do you admire more as a leader Essay These two heroes have embarked from the same destination but on very different journeys. Whilst they are both Iliadic heroes at the start of their stories, they develop and adapt their manner towards the characteristics required of them to succeed. Before we judge them, it is necessary to determine our definition of a successful leader. A hero from the Iliad must be a speaker of words and one who is accomplished in action, according to the horseman Phoinix (Iliad. 9. 413). A leader must have these primary qualities then, as he must lead by example, but to create the ideal we must add to this. The leader should rely on no others but in turn listen to sound counsel. He should be fair in his justice, in control of his situation and surroundings, keep his men abreast of the plan of action and reasoning behind it, remain calm under pressure and have compassion and understanding for his people. Thus his primary concerns should be the welfare of his people, their security and maintaining peace at all costs. His men, a good indicator of his leadership to us, should therefore give him loyalty, trust, and obedience, if the leader has led them suitably. The performance of the men is also important, and what they achieve under his direction is representative of his strength of leadership, though this must be compared with how they act without his presence. These measures can be seen as the important assets of a competent leader, though extenuating and uncontrollable circumstances must be taken into account, as we make a sound judgement of our two heroes. Aeneas and Odysseus themselves are different, both in character and in their quest. Whilst Aeneas is born of the goddess Venus, Odysseus lineage has no close link to a deity. However, whilst Aeneas is of divine descent, he receives little or no help from his mother. When he lands at Carthage and Venus is kind enough to give him information about Didos people, she is disguised and departs immediately after having spoken, to the despair of Aeneas (you so often mock your own son you too are cruel A. 1. 406). The other help he receives is limited (thick mist A. 1. 411) and with no knowledge of its existence. Whilst his mother is vehement in defending her son and his people when she is on Olympus (it is unspeakable. We are betrayed A. 1. 252 take pity on them A. 10. 60), no action is taken to ease him in his distress or console him in person. Within the Aeneid, the gods are not the ever-present guardians that Athene is to Odysseus in the Odyssey, whether they agree or not (Hercules checked the great groan helpless tears streamed A. 10. 465). Athene on the other hand, not only helps Odysseus with her divine power but she gives him advice (go to the swineherd O. 13. 403), disguises him (change you beyond recognition O. 13. 396), and even cares for his family (instil more spirit into Odysseus son O. 1.89, prompted the wise Penelope O. 21. 1). She is very intimate with Odysseus, conversing at length and speaking very openly (you are so persuasive, so quick-witted, so self-possessed O. 13. 333). Whilst Venus never alights on the earth to console Aeneas in his grief (heart sick at the sadness of war A. 8. 29), Athene can not bear to leave her hero in distress (I cannot desert you in your misfortunes O. 13. 332). Aeneas is in fact quite a lonely character and doesnt even compete in the games of Book 5, which we can easily imagine Odysseus competing in (as in the Iliad). His lack of personal contact with the gods shows that he is just a pawn, merely a very important pawn. However, the actual tangible help that Aeneas receives is far greater than Athenes to Odysseus. The son of Venus receives divine weapons beyond all words and of shining splendour. Neptunes actions against the work of Juno allow his crew to survive the shipwreck (calming the swell A. 1. 145). Thus, whilst Aeneas is never given a piece of news from the Olympians that he actually wants to hear (dumb and senseless A. 4. 280), his physical aid from the gods is great. Odysseus receives emotional and strategic help from Athene (the two of them sat down to scheme O. 13. 371), as well as assistance from Hermes in person. However, his encounters with monsters and magic are largely left to him. He is given no divine armour, and Athene checks her aid in deference to Poseidon. But Venus just goes head to head with Juno, despite her lesser status, and aids Aeneas. Odysseus walks with the gods and they interact with him regularly but this counterbalances his character as a loner. Aeneas leadership begins in conjunction with his father Anchises who dies in Sicily, but his son Ascanius is on the voyage also. He also has no alienation from his men, such as Achates, and listens to their words (there is no danger A. 1. 584). Odysseus on the other hand has a difficulty with listening to people. Despite Agamemnons warning in Book 11 (make a secret approach O. 11. 456), it takes Athenes reminder (tell not a single person O. 13. 308) to prevent catastrophe (I would certainly have come to a miserable end if you, goddess, had not made all this clear to me O. 13. 383). He ignores Circes advice not to put on his armour when he goes past Scylla. He ignores his mens attempts to stop him saying his name to the Cyclops. This inability to accept criticism or advice hampers a good relationship with his men. Odysseus hardly ever refers to his men by name and the only man whom we hear in person is the treacherous Eurylochus and the drunken ghost of Elpenor. No direct speech from a living Ithacan on Odysseus crew is ever said to him in kind. Though Odysseus goes so far as to divide the men up and share command with Eurylochus, his pondering as to whether or not he should lop his head off counts against it. Odysseus acts very much on his own compared to Aeneas whom only ever parts company from his men when he is with Dido and when he first lands on Carthage. However, Odysseus is frequently dividing himself from his men. He receives the souls of the dead on his own, with no Sibyl to guide him. He forages on his own in Scherie, he lands his ship away from the others at Telepylus, he lets no one else control the rudder leaving Aeolia and he sleeps away from the others upon Thrinacie. Odysseus repetitive action of taking everything upon himself points to the different nature of his and Aeneas travels. Odysseus is going home to free his wife, his home, and his kingdom. His men just happen to be going to the same place. Aeneas though is going to found a new race with his people. It is essential, for his mission to be completed successfully, that he reaches Latium with a band of men to found Rome. Odysseus though has no commitment to his crew. Homer is very insistent on the fact that the Ithacans on the ship are not worth saving and could not have been saved from destruction, despite Odysseus attempts (in spite of all his efforts their own transgression that brought them to their doom O. 1. 6). The point that these are his fellow countrymen, whom he should have the utmost concern for , as their king, seems to be ignored. Aeneas has no legal duty to his crew as their king, unlike Odysseus. The Ithacan crew does have their shortcomings but compared to the Trojans, the Ithacans arduous trials on the seas are far worse. No rest is received from Troy until Aeaea. The Sirens, and Scylla and Charybdis also occur without a pit stop in between it is not surprising that Eurylochus expresses the wish of the men to land and take on supplies (you expect us, just as we are[to] go wandering off over the foggy sea O. 12. 285). The crew has lost 11 ships by the time they leave the Laestrygonians.

Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic Kidney Disease Chronic conditions have been defined as â€Å"health problems that require ongoing management over a period of years or decades† and have been labelled as the biggest challenge faced by the health sector in the 21st century (WHO, 2002:11). While the economic cost of managing them is high, Suhrcke, Fahey McKee (2008) identify some strong economic arguments that may be made in support of the need for societies to invest in their (chronic diseases) management. They identify some primary benefits such as improved health (in terms of patients quantity and quality of life in years), long-term cost savings from complications that are prevented, and workplace productivity experienced by patients and their employers. Management of such conditions are no longer evaluated by the rates of survival alone but, also, by the quality of life experienced by patients as a result of the therapy (Bowling, 2005) Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is becoming a global pandemic (Mahon, 2006; Chen, Scott, Mattern, Mohini Nissenson, 2006; Clements Ashurst, 2006). The disease causes gradual decline in kidney function (Silvestri, 2002). It has been categorised into 5 stages according to the glomerular filtration rates (Johnson Usherwood, 2005) and the progression through these stages is influenced by several processes, mostly lifestyle-related (Riegersperger Sunder-Plassmann, 2007). Patients with stage 5 kidney disease (end stage) must receive kidney transplant, peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis to survive (Niu Li, 2005). However, Wu et al. (2004) identifies that many patients undergo either haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis because kidneys are, mostly, not available for transplant. Between these two treatment methods, haemodialysis is more common in many countries (Jablonski, 2007; Zhang et al., 2007; Martchev, 2008) although Carmichael et al. (2000) report that about 50% of dialysis patient s in the United Kingdom are on some form of peritoneal dialysis. The two common treatment modalities for kidney failure (haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis) have the same primary purposes: to remove metabolic waste and excess fluids, and maintain fluid and electrolyte balance the functions the kidneys have failed to perform (Martchev, 2008; Timmers et al, 2008). However, each of them places unique demands on the patient as well as the healthcare team. For instance, patients on conventional haemodialysis have to spend between three to four hours on the machine for three times in a week (Rayment Bonner, 2007; Dunn, 1993). This, in addition to transportation to and from the haemodialysis centre or hospital, if they are not on home haemodialysis, affects their work or family life (Martchev, 2008). Likewise, patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), the most common form of peritoneal dialysis, have to allow dialysate to dwell within their peritoneal cavity for an average of four hours and exchange of the dialysate is done about four times in a day (Dunn, 1993; Bowman Martin, 1999; Gonzalez-Perez et al., 2005). Moreover, compliance to dialysis regimen is very difficult because of all the dietary and fluid restrictions and other lifestyle modification associated with it (Cleary Drennan, 2005; Timmers et al., 2008; Martchev, 2008). Presently, more than 23,000 adults in the UK undergo dialysis treatment as a result of kidney failure and this number is expected to increase yearly (World Kidney Day, 2009). Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (Ghana) recorded 558 cases of chronic kidney disease between January 2006 and July 2008 in the country (All Africa, 2009) and this may represent less than 30% of the total disease burden as the hospital serves a few regions in the country. I once encountered a 27-year old young man who had been diagnosed with kidney failure. At that point in time, my concern was the kind of life he would experience depending on dialysis for survival. Cleary and Drennan (2005) identifies that patients with kidney failure have lower quality of life than the general healthy population while Loos et al. (2003), also, identify that patients with kidney failure have poor quality of life as compared to other patients with other chronic diseases. Complications such as anaemia and fatigue may contribute to the lower quality of life in patients with kidney failure (Phillips, Davies White, 2001). Therefore, management of kidney failure should not only be cost-effective, but should also provide acceptable quality of life for the patients (Kring Crane, 2009). How, then, can health professionals provide an acceptable quality of life for persons diagnosed with kidney failure? Major roles played by health care personnel include educating, encouragin g, and assisting patients to choose the treatment modality that is best for their unique needs (Niu Li, 2005). It is, therefore, appropriate for nurses to know which of the two kinds of treatment modalities promises an acceptable quality of life for individual patients, and this knowledge should be supported by appropriate evidence gathered through quality research. In the 21st century, patients feelings and perceptions on health care are paramount to the feelings and perceptions of the health care providers (Bowling, 2005). Therefore, studying the quality of life, as experienced by patients on a specific regimen, requires the direct, subjective assessments of the patients and not the objective assessment of the health care provider (Kring Crane, 2009). However, quality of life lacks a unanimous definition as a concept, making interpretation and synthesis of studies on it very difficult (Cleary Drennan, 2005; Kring Crane, 2009). Researchers and theorists have reached a consensus on some characteristics of quality of life as a concept: it is multidimensional, temporal and subjective (Bredow, Peterson Sandau, 2009). The multidimensional aspect of the concept comprises of the physical, psychological and social capabilities of the person (McDowell, 1996 cited by Fortin et al., 2004). It is temporal because people can change their values and perc eptions to fix the changes in their perceived quality of life as circumstances change (Sprangers Schwartz, 1999). It is subjective because, as stated earlier, patients perceptions and feelings on such an outcome supersede that of the health care provider. Nevertheless, Tobita and Hyde (2007) states that there are some objective measures such as age and gender that can influence the measurement of quality of life. Different subjective tools have, therefore, been developed to measure subjective aspects of quality of life but these are of two kinds: generic and disease-specific measures (Tobita Hyde, 2007). Generic tools measure broad aspects and can be used for several types of diseases at different locations and for different cultural groups while disease-specific tools are for specific types of diseases or patient groups (Patrick Deyo, 1989). When the two kinds of tools are combined, different populations can be compared and sensitivity to the changes that might occur with time is enhanced (Wu et al., 2004). The generic tool that is commonly used to measure quality of life is the Medical Outcomes Study Questionnaire 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) (Neto et al., 2000; Fortin et al., 2004; Morsch, Gonà §alves Barros, 2006). Carmichael et al. (2000) identify that three disease-specific measures have been designed for dialysis patients and these are Kidney Disease Questionnaire (KDQ) , a questionnaire designed by Parfrey et al. and the Kidney Disease Quality of Life questionnaire (KDQOL). Polaschek (2003) identifies that most of the studies that have been undertaken to explore the quality of life of patients with kidney failure have used the quantitative approach. However, he adds that a few nursing studies have used qualitative methodologies in an attempt to understand the quality of life as experienced by patients on dialysis. For example, Al-Arabi (2006) used the naturalistic enquiry method to identify how the challenges faced by patients with kidney failure influence their quality of life. Sadala and Loreà §on (2006) also used a phenomenological approach to explore patients perspective on their dependence on haemodialysis machines for survival. Grounded theory approach has, also, been used Kaba et al. (2007) to understand patients experience of kidney failure and dialysis in Greece. So far, this essay has addressed the poorer quality of life experienced by patients with chronic conditions, with special emphasis on that of patients with kidney failure. It has, also, touched on the attempts made by theorists and researchers to conceptualise and assess quality of life. Development of tools to measure subjective quality of life has created more diversity in the assessment of quality of life of patients, either by the use of quantitative or qualitative methodologies. It has been stated earlier that nurses and other health personnel assist patients in choosing the treatment modality that is best for their condition with the best available evidence. Therefore, the question for healthcare providers to answer is ‘does peritoneal dialysis, compared to haemodialysis, provide a better quality of life for patients with kidney failure? The next section would look at ways by which health care providers can use research to generate answers to the above question. This section would critically appraise various research methods that could be employed to answer my research question does peritoneal dialysis, compared to haemodialysis, provide a better quality of life for patients with kidney failure? Empirical research, audit/service evaluation and systematic review of published studies are the approaches that would be considered in this essay Empirical Research Qualitative and quantitative designs could be used to answer the above research question. However, steps to control bias and to ensure reliability of the findings should be considered (Polit Cheryl, 2008). Consideration should also be given to ethical issues (Robson,..) Qualitative research is the best approach when questions on ‘what, ‘how and ‘why on a phenomenon are to be answered (Green Thorogood, 2004). Some of the research traditions that are used in qualitative studies include ethnography, phenomenology and grounded theory (Polit Cheryl, 2008). To understand quality of life, as experienced by dialysis patients from their own perspective, phenomenological approach appears to be more appropriate. Polit and Cheryl (2008) identify that phenomenological study focuses on the meaning and importance attached to a phenomenon by those experiencing it and suggest that this approach is beneficial for studies on concepts that have been poorly defined, such as quality of life. If phenomenological approach is used for my research question, I would interview dialysis patients on how kidney failure and dialysis have affected their quality of life, after obtaining their informed consent for the study. However, Ashworth (1996) states that researchers using descriptive phenomenological approach by Husserl should set aside all their preconceptions on the phenomenon that is being studied (bracketing). For instance, now that I know that dialysis patients have a poorer quality of life, as compared to other patients with other chronic diseases or the general healthy population, I should be able to set such an idea aside during the collection and analysis of data. But Polit and Cheryl (2008) identify that researchers using interpretive phenomenology approach by Heideggar acknowledge that bracketing is not possible in empirical studies. Nevertheless, both types of phenomenological studies require the researcher to be open to all meanings that are given to a phenomenon by those experiencing it and maintain such an attitude when analysing the data and describing the findings. One limitation of phenomenology, however, is that small number of participants can be used for each distinctive phenomenological study, usually ten participants or less (Polit Cheryl, 2008). Phenomenology shares other limitations of qualitative research methods. Given (2006) identifies that qualitative research generate a lot of data, even when the sample size is small. He also states that collecting and analysing data may take a long time and results may not be generalised because of the small number of participants. Therefore, even though phenomenology and other qualitative methods may offer me rich and in-depth information on dialysis patients perspectives on their quality of life, a qualitative design may not be suitable to answer this research question for generalisation purposes.

Hispanic Dropouts Essays -- Teaching Education Spanish Hispanic Essays

Hispanic Dropouts White, black, Mexican, Asian; no matter what the ethnicity, students will drop out of school. Yet when the term dropout is mentioned, Hispanic often comes to mind. Why is this? Schools all over the United States are affected by the Hispanic school dropouts. Many questions need to be answered on this topic: What is a dropout? What is causing these students to dropout? How many are actually dropping out? What is the future like for the dropouts? And what can be done to help lower the dropout rate? What exactly is a dropout? Although difficult to define, a dropout is considered a student who leaves school for any reason and does not continue on into any other type of schooling (United States Department of Education Consumer Guide [USDE], 1996). Unfortunately, a dropout could definitely be considered a quitter, which in the United States is not a term one wants to inherit. To not be named as a dropout, one must graduate. There is more than one path to high school completion (USDE, 1996). Regularly, a student receives a diploma after a certain required course load is completed. On the other hand, some students can complete high school by a means of an equivalency test and receive a diploma that way. Unfortunately, each state, district, and even school uses the term dropout differently (USDE, 1996). The United States Department of Education?s National Center for Educational Statistics has stated three separate ways used to calculate the dropout rate. The first is when the percentage of students who drop out in a single year are reflected by the event rates. The second is when the status rates reflect a percentage of those students who in a certain age range have not finished high school ... ...from the World Wide Web: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/dropout.html. United States Department of Labor. (2003). Employment Situation Summary. Retrieved November 12, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm. Valladares, M.R. (2002). The Dropouts. Hispanic, 15(12), pp.36-40. Retrieved November 9, 2003 from EBSCO database (Masterfile) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ebsco.com. Viadero, D. (1997) Hispanic dropouts face higher hurdles, study says. Education Week, 16(41), pp. 3. Retrieved on November 12, 2003 from EBSCO database (Masterfile) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ebsco.com. Zehr, M. A. (2003). Reports Spotlight Latino Dropout Rates, College Attendance. Education week, 22(41) p.12. Retrieved September 28, 2003 from EBSCO database (Masterfile) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ebsco.com.

Merseyside Essay

This case involves the dilemma between two mutually exclusive projects that Victoria Chemicals wants to proceed with, but can only choose one earning them 7% increase in polypropylene output per plant. The two proposals will be proposed by the plant managers and evaluated according to corporate criteria. They are to be evaluated on four credentials; Net present value, IRR, payback, and growth in EPS. However the two proposals are fairly different. The Rotterdam projects calls for the expenditure of 10. 5 million GBP spread over three years, firmly committing Victoria Chemicals to the new process technology. The Merseyside project calls for 12 million GBP for renovations, retaining the flexibility to later add the technology in the future. The question is which project should the company take on based on the financial calculations including the company decision criteria. Rotterdam Proposal The Rotterdam proposal consisted of a 90 page document with strategic analyses, and financial projections. The basic discounted cash flow (DCF) shows the project having a positive NPV of 11 million GBP with a IRR of 15. 4%. The initial invest spread over 3 years would help convert the plants polymerization line from batch to continuous-flow technology and to install sophisticated state-of-the-art process controls throughout the operations. This process has already been installed in several other production facilities in Japan and the improvements in cost and output had been positive on average. This proposal consists of 90 pages and already is giving a hint. In this proposal there can be a lot of bogus information which cant lead to false and misleading predictions. It can be looked at as very sketch as to why it seems to be the â€Å"better† proposal. In essence, the Rotterdam proposal seeks to accomplish their goals by having the option to purchase the pipeline for GBP3. 5 million in initial capital investment for overhauling the plant, having a value of 6 million GBP which can be later sold 15 years later for approx.. 40 million GBP. This violates the stand-alone principle. Subsequently, the plan calls for spending another GBP5 million in 2001, GBP1 million for 2002, and another GBP1 million for 2003. Total investments are roughly GBP10. 5 million, spread out in 3 years. These initial investment figures have a negative impact on the firm’s finances, affecting a series of other factors, which raise concerns among board of directors and executives. One major concern is that in the financial associated with this project they include 40 Million GBP from the selling of sale of the right-of-way pipeline in there cash flows in year 15 when in fact this is not substantial cash flow directly associated with the project. Some senior Victoria Chemicals executives firmly agreeing with this speculation saying â€Å"Our business is chemicals, not land speculation. Simply buying the right-of-way with the intention of reselling it for a profit takes us beyond our expertise. Who knows when we could sell it, and for how much? How distracting would this little side venture be for the executive committee? This then can affect the NPV as well as the IRR. The proposal also doesn’t account for the 3 percent inflation that is expected which also can change the estimates of gross profit also affecting the free cash flows for this project. As a result of these loses in output the first three years (from 2001-2003), there is also a reduction in gross profit. The report shows loses of -7. 79 GBP for 2001, -GPB5. 73 for 2002, and –GBP3. 40 for 2003 caused from the initial investment of 10. 5. The total loses amount to a staggering –GBP16. 92, a substantial amount for the firm during these first three years of upgrades and preparation for the new technology. These loses have a direct impact in sales figures, noticeably, thus creating a longer payback period for this project around 11 years, meaning that the project is a bit more risky considering a given 10 percent discount rate. I also noticed that this project seems to have the higher NPV of 14. 87 when they factor in the 40 million GBP from the sale of the pipeline in 15 years. Without that it then falls under the other proposal and is not the preferred project and has a lower NPV of 5. 29. Merseyside Proposal The Merseyside proposal consisted of a 12 million GBP expenditure creating significant opportunities for improvement in polypropylene production. Other opportunities stemmed from correcting the antiquated plant design in ways that would save energy and improve the process flow: relocating and modernizing tank-car unloading areas, which would enable the process flow to be streamlined, refurbishing the polymerization tank to achieve higher pressures and thus greater throughput, and renovating the compounding plant to increase extrusion throughput and obtain energy savings. No question that Morris’ plan is the more conservative of the two, suggesting a phased-in approach to the upgrades. In essence, Merseyside sees the need to make some technological upgrades as well. They want to slowly upgrade to the new controls system, and after a few years, make the full switch to the new software. In all, this 12 million GBP proposal retained the flexibility to add the technology in the future. The entire renovation would cause the plant to be down for 45 days causing the customers to go to other suppliers and competitors for the needed products due to the fact the other nearby plant (Rotterdam) is already working at maximum capacity. Some benefits of the renovations would be the improvement on gross margin up 1 % from 11. 5-12. 5. As you look at the financials associated with this project you notice that Merseyside met all the requirements for the corporate criteria with a greater NPV that Rotterdam when they do not include the 40 million sale of the pipeline. They also include and take inflation into account when giving their proposals as well. The initial investment is a bit more that Rotterdam but essentially the payback period is lower with only around 4. 1 years. This means this proposal is less risky then the other, both assuring the expected return of 7%. However there is a crossover rate at 15. 2 meaning with the discount rate at 15. there is no proposal that is preferred to one another if Rotterdam includes the 40 Million. Without the 40 million Merseyside project will always be preferred to Rotterdam because the NPV will always be greater. According to the case and my calculations I have come to the conclusion that it is best to accept the Merseyside project and reject the Rotterdam. Based on many financials and the corporate criteria Merseyside seems to be the best option. While evaluating both proposals I noticed that the Rotterdam project purchases a right-of-way pipeline for 3. 5 million included in the 10. million GBP investment to later sell in 15 years for 40 million GBP violating the standalone principle. However being that they are not in this type of business and are in the plastic manufacturing industry producing a wide variety of products; including medical supplies, carpet fibers, and automobile components, they should not account for the sale which would then put the NPV for this project from 14. 87 to 5. 29, which is then lower then the NPV for Merseyside which is 9. 12. When comparing mutually exclusive projects you want to focus on NPV and the project with the higher NPV is usually preferred to the oth er like in this case. Also when making my decision to choose Merseyside I noticed there was a smaller payback period meaning it will take a shorter time to recover your initial investment proving that the project can be less risky as well. I was also a little sketched out when the plant manager for Rotterdam presented a 90-page proposal. This can mean the managers put in a lot of false and misleading info to get the project approved. This can rest my case as to why I would prefer to choose the Merseyside project to the Rotterdam.

buy custom The Healthcare Sector essay

buy custom The Healthcare Sector essay The healthcare sector provides a service just like all the other service industries and as such has a market and needs to grow that market. The nature of the healthcare service industry tended for a long time to depend on patients seeking the service and the need for marketing was overlooked. However, managers in this vital service industry realized that for people to seek these services, they needed to have information about their existence and thus started the revolution in the way healthcare providers marketed their services. This need was compounded by the fact that hospitals tended to favour metropolitan locations and as such most hospitals would find themselves concentrated in one location. The similarities of their services and sometimes the differences provided for a platform for cooperation in multi-hospital marketing and the hospitals that used this approach mutually benefited, this research paper aims to shed more light on the bottlenecks that multi-hospital marketing approach faced in its formative years before it gained widespread acceptance. The paper addresses the appropriateness of marketing in the hospital services context, the effectiveness of such marketing in a multi-hospital systems and finally the accountability of multi-hospital systems marketing. In their 1992 study Zaremba, Tucker, and Ogilvie concluded that less innovative systems tended to have narrower scope of marketing activities than more innovative systems. These researchers found that, systems that were innovators, as compared to non-innovators, tended to use marketing information and formalized communications systems-key components of an integrated marketing information dimension of a marketing orientation. When hospitals plan and market properly, they become more effective in their service delivery. Naidu Narayana 1991 found that, Often a market analysis is a key component of the strategic plan. A detailed market analysis assists in identifying utilization rates, projecting future volume, assessing competitive position, developing an actual marketing plan, and is a vital component when researching potential new services or locations. While considerable time, thought, and effort goes into the analysis of various data components, one key component of the market analysis is often overlooked defining the actual market. It is important to take into consideration the fact that hospital service seekers are not a community and cannot identify themselves as such and define themselves as a market (Thompson Hurley 1993). In their 1993 study, Thompson Hurley said that, The hospital marketing function has been widely adopted as a way to learn about markets, attract sufficient resources, develop appropriate services, and communicate the availability of such goods to those who may be able to purchase such services. The structure, tasks, and effectiveness of the marketing function have been the subject of increased inquiry by researchers and practitioners alike. A specific understanding of hospital marketing in a growing managed care environment and the relationship between marketing and managed care processes in hospitals is a growing concern. Buy custom The Healthcare Sector essay