World Trade Organization Essays - World Trade Organization

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed on January 1, 1995, as successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which had regulated tariffs worldwide since 1947. The WTO regulates tariffs on services, intellectual property, food, and government purchasing. The Clinton administration has been working very hard to negotiate a deal with China, a nation we have given ?Most Favored Nation' status to, to enter into the World Trade Organization. After a long negotiation process, we have reached a deal with China. The conditions of the deal require China to open its markets to a wide range of US products and services and to permit increased investment in China by US firms. Of course the agreement has to be passed by Congress, which is bound to create a lively debate on the matter. US Commerce Secretary, William Daley, is trying to convince America that this deal with China is critical to their pocketbooks. He says, "If you enjoy this economic success we are participating in, this is an important piece of its future." I have a hard time seeing how things will change if China is admitted to the WTO. We already trade a great deal with China and have given them ?Most Favored Nation' status already. I think there are several reasons why we should not let China into the WTO. There are several political risks involved with this deal with China. Organized labor and environmental groups are using this deal to somehow introduce environmental conditions and labor rights into the WTO rules. Although they are in opposition to the deal right now, they will construct a bargain in which they will trade their support of Chinese membership for the rules to be added. Chinese membership is also a great risk for China. The increased imports from the United States and other countries and the production in China by foreign firms will provide strong competition to many of the state-owned industries. I think this will force many Chinese businesses to close down. The only other solution would be to cut back on workers at these companies, which would increase the unemployment rate in China. The resulting rise in unemployment can hurt their economy and cost them a lot of money. The last, and perhaps most important issue in this debate is over China's human rights and labor standards. China is a communist country, which is something Americans seem to completely disagree with. If I recall, Little Elian from Cuba (another Communist country) is stuck in the middle of a debate over whether we should send him back to his country because it is Communist and we are so against that form of government. If we are so appalled by Communism, why do we want to give ?Most favored nation' status to one of the few remaining Communist countries? That is why we have an embargo on Cuba. When China is ready to take steps forward in human rights and labor standards, then we can talk about trade agreements.

The Real Reason for Washingtons Crazy Street Patterns

The Real Reason for Washingtons Crazy Street Patterns Watch out. Here comes the end of the world again. Viewers of the History Channels Ancient Aliens learned that the crazy streetmap of Washington, D.C. with its roundabouts and angled avenues, is based on celestial navigations, ancient aliens, and Luciferian New World Order. City planner Pierre Charles LEnfant would be shocked to hear about this. Born August 2, 1754 in France, Monsieur LEnfant is best known for designing the D.C. roadways of circles and spokes, a 1791 master plan that transformed a patch of swamp and farmland into the capital of the United States. Even today, much of Washington, D.C. with its wide boulevards and public squares follows LEnfants original concept. But was LEnfants design inspired by Freemasonry, aliens, and the occult - or maybe the orderly French Baroque styles of the day? The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) of the National Park Service has given us the answer. In documenting the significance of LEnfants design, they say: The historic plan of Washington, District of Columbia - the nations capital - designed by Pierre LEnfant in 1791 as the site of the Federal City, represents the sole American example of a comprehensive baroque city plan with a coordinated system of radiating avenues, parks and vistas laid over an orthogonal system. Influenced by the designs of several European cities and eighteenth-century gardens such as Frances Palace of Versailles, the plan of Washington, D.C, was symbolic and innovative for the new nation. Existing colonial towns surely influenced LEnfants scheme, just as the plan of Washington, in turn, influenced subsequent American city planning.... LEnfants plan was magnified and expanded during the early decades of the twentieth century with the reclamation of land for waterfront parks, parkways, and improved Mall, and new monuments and vistas. Two-hundred years since its design, the integrity of the plan of Washington is largely unimpaired - boasting a legally enforced height restriction, landscaped parks, wide avenues, and open space allowing intended vistas.- LEnfant-McMillan Plan of Washington, D.C. (The Federal City), HABS No. DC-668, 1990-1993, pp. 1-2 The Legends and Stories The real story of LEnfants design is one of professional urban design - architectural planning based on study and history. The juicy stories that were fabricated may have begun with prejudice. One of the original surveyors of the District of Columbia was Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), a free African-American. Banneker and Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) were enlisted by George Washington to stake out the boundaries for Americas new capital, the Federal City. Because he knew a bit about astronomy, Banneker used celestial calculations to mark off the borderlines. A Black man using the stars and the moon, along with the Freemasonry of some of the Founding Fathers, and stories of the occult and a new government based on Satanism was certain to flourish. The street design in Washington, D.C., has been laid out in such a manner that certain Luciferic symbols are depicted by the streets, cul-de-sacs and rotaries, claims one conspiracy theorist writing in The Revelation. LEnfant hid certain occ ultic magical symbols in the layout of the new capital, and together they become one large Luciferic, or occultic, symbol. If this story of urban design intrigues you, the theories about extraterrestrials and advanced civilizations visiting Earth in ancient times may be of further interest. Were the avenues of Washington, D.C. really ancient landing strips for alien spaceships? Check out the full series from the History Channel to find out what other mayhem the ancient aliens were up to (Ancient Aliens DVD Box set, The Complete Seasons 1–6). The McMillan Commission LEnfant had come to America to fight in the Revolutionary War, serving with the Corps of Engineers of the Continental Army. His passion for Americas future was well-understood by the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, but his stormy reluctance to compromise did not sit well with the City Commissioners. LEnfants plan lived on, but he was uninvolved with its development and died penniless on June 14, 1825. It wasnt until 1900 when Senator James McMillan chaired a commission that instituted the vision of Pierre LEnfant. To realize the plans of LEnfant, the McMillan Commission enlisted the  architects Daniel Burnham and Charles F. McKim, the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and the sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens - all famous figures in American design at the turn of the 20th century. Pierre Charles LEnfant is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, in a grave overlooking the city he designed but never realized. Sources Arlington National Cemetery website. arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves/Prominent-Military-Figures/Pierre-Charles-LEnfantThe Revelation website, theforbiddenknowledge.com/chapter3/A Brief History of Pierre LEnfant and Washington, D.C., Smithsonian.comLEnfant-McMillan Plan of Washington, DC (HABS NO, DC-668, 1990-1993, researched and written by Elizabeth Barthold and Sara Amy Leach), Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service, Department of the Interior at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/dc/dc0700/dc0776/data/dc0776data.pdf; The LEnfant and McMillan Plans, National Park Service [websites accessed July 23, 2017]Image of Baroque street plan of 1791 Washington, DC designed by Pierre LEnfant from the LEnfant-McMillan Plan, HABS DC,WASH,612- (2 of 32), Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Grand Theft Auto VS The Power-Go-Round Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Grand Theft Auto VS The Power-Go-Round - Essay Example In this case, what Finn is trying to emphasize is the fact that most of the agencies responsible for the monitoring and regulating of video games (in Australia, the Office of Film and Literature Classification), especially on video games with a violent and interactive content, usually fall short in properly classifying games that is to be played and not to be played by the Australian public; given that the game GTA3 has already been generating much sales on the video game playing public, and have already become one of the most popular games played by video game enthusiast before it was banned by the said agency (Finn 2006). The fact here is that the violent game Postal 2 also shared the same experience, and even worse, wherein despite being involved with controversy due to its violent content, even gaining opposition from the American politician Senator Joe Lieberman, who decried in it Congress (Wolpaw 2003), the game was not banned in the United States (although it was banned in oth er countries) (Wolpaw 2003). Another important concept that was revealed by Finn in his essay is the fact that the reason why the Office of Film and Literature Classification actually bans video games is because if the fact that it actually â€Å"exceeded limitations† of how games are going to be classified; that is, according to â€Å"the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults; the literary, artistic or educational merit (if any) of the publication, film or computer game; the general character of the publication, film or computer game; the persons or class or persons or who amongst whom it is published or intended or likely to be published† (Finn 2006) From the said standards, it can be seen that the game Postal 2 certainly exceeds the limitation of these classificatory descriptions. With regards to the â€Å"the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults† (Finn 2006), Posta l 2 ultimately fails, given that the game actually shows and encourages players to â€Å"†¦drop-kick grenades and whip scythes at unsuspecting civilians if they refuse to participate in your everyday life story (which is, after all, the plot behind the game). Of course, this includes using cat carcasses as silencers on your gun, hitting people with anthrax-laden cow heads and playing ‘fetch’ with dogs using the severed heads of your dismembered victims† (Chomick n. d.). Of course, such kind of behavior does not pass any standard of morality or decency of reasonable adults, given that such kind of behavior, which expresses and encourages cruelty, murder and defamation are considered totally unreasonable and unacceptable. In no way can drop kicking grenades and whipping scythes to â€Å"

Ethics Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics Case Study - Essay Example Jerry’s training within the medical field surrounds him to not be in a position from where he can prescribe anyone a medicine. This makes him disqualified to resolve an issue at hand, which in this case has happened when Dr. Williams was not present on his seat. There is a possibility that Dr. Williams has essentially forbidden dosage of Valium to a certain patient, and in this case if Jerry McCall prescribes usage of Valium just on the basis of being Dr. Williams’ friend, then this shall become an ethical issue all the same. Hence it would be fitting enough for Jerry McCall to keep himself at a distance from making that unethical move by prescribing medicine to this patient which basically transgresses his authority by quite a fair proportion. 2 Would it make a difference if the medication requested were for control of high blood pressure that the patient critically needs on a daily basis? Why or why not? One should believe that it would not be any different if the req uested medication controls high blood pressure. There would be no difference if the discussion centered on lowering it all the same. The reason for this is that the kind of medication required to be given by Jerry McCall or any other person in charge is uncalled for. He should seek the advice of Dr. Williams and since he is not present on his seat, it would be a wise decision to stay put and ask Dr. Williams’ friend to wait for a certain while. Dr. Williams alone would be the best person to suggest which medicine and how much dosage would be deemed as a fitting one for his friend under such a circumstance. The patient must know that Dr. Williams only can help him and no one else from his staff has the right or the authority to issue a refill order. 3 If Jerry calls in the refill and the patient has an adverse reaction while flying, is Jerry protected from a lawsuit under the doctrine of respondent superior? It is safe to suggest that Jerry McCall would not gain any protection from a lawsuit. This is because under the basis of the doctrine of respondent superior, if the patient feels that he has had an adverse reaction even though he is flying; there are serious legal issues which will come to the fore. There would be serious charges for Jerry McCall as he will be the one who brought about the medication realms towards the patient. Essentially speaking, it will also make Dr. Williams duty bound and thus he would also have to undergo the lawsuit as Jerry is his employee. Since the medication was never appreciated in the first place and was totally uncalled for, the role that Jerry plays under such a situation becomes even more significant. The reason for this is that he was never given the permission to provide for medication to patients as he does not qualify for any post within Dr. Williams’ office. One must not forget that he is an office assistant, and thus his job domains do not allow him to administer issuing a refill order for patients as an d when required by the patients. Hence, the lawsuit would come about on Jerry McCall as well as Dr. Williams for being negligent towards their duties and for being unethical within their working basis (Weber, 2000). 4 What is your advice to Jerry? If someone could give an advice to Jerry, it would be that he should perform his job alone and not think about doing something which can be regarded as an immoral act. He must not interfere within the working basis of his employer – Dr. Williams. If he does so, he will be able to maintain

Social Welfare to Student Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Social Welfare to Student - Research Proposal Example Nevertheless, several of the undergraduate students consider social welfare policy to be disinteresting (Popple & Leighninger; Woik, Pray, Weismiller & Dempsey). Some of the students like working only with people and families and are not interested in macro-level issues. Some others do not have enough experience in tackling with the major troubles, thus they have to be striving with the thinking of incompetence to comprehend social welfare policies. Still others find that it is difficult to apply policy structures to the political, economic and socio-cultural complications which are a part of the social welfare troubles. There is a theory that by using experimental styles for teaching students about the social welfare policy, they would be able to attain more knowledge and skill regarding their work on social and economic justice matters. In this study a comparison of two kinds of ways will be presented. One way is by teaching about social welfare policy as a service learning course while the other incorporates social welfare policy into the learners' class experience. This study has been undertaken in order to provide the teachers and students with the information regarding the methods of teaching about the issue at hand. This was the motivation. Through this they can discover the ways of teaching effectively. Many know about the students' disinterestedness in matters regarding social welfare policy. ... Several of the teachers have seen this for themselves and have noticed how such feelings may rise to such heights that they do not allow the learner to absorb the new information, employ logical structures, and reflect on the probabilities for social action. Although these troubles are troubling a survey for the graduates revealed that they feel that their education did not help them as much in social welfare policy as it did for doing direct service (Anderson & Harris, 511-512). Service learning is being noticed a lot in social work partially because of the experimental pedagogy of service learning is congruent to the social work's feasible focus, and both stress on the requirement of addressing the social difficulties. Initiating at the position at which the patron is a hallmark of social work practice which is strengthened in service-learning programs prerequisite that the society and not the leaner is the one defining the difficult and the actions which they would carry out so as to tackle with it (Jacoby & Associates; Weigert). Likewise, service learning modules, for example social work, are defined through a meaning of reciprocity and empathy in people's relations (Enos & Troppe; Eyler & Giles; Rhoads). Furthermore, service learning stresses on consideration together with the act so as to allow the students to raise their consciousness and to challenge their rulings concerning the social troubles like poverty, tyranny, and communal prejudice. This syste m promotes the stress of social work on morals explanation and its augmented dedication to tackle the issues of communal and monetary unfairness. In spite of there existing a match between service education and social work, there are not many social welfare policy modules that

Why Some Companies Are More Successful Than Others Commerce Essay

Why Some Companies Are More Successful Than Others Commerce Essay Why are some companies successful, while so many other businesses fail. Some organizations may just be lucky. They may have the right mix of products and/or services at the right time. But even if luck leads to success, it probably will not last. Most companies that are highly successful over the long term effectively acquire, develop, and manage resources and capabilities that provide competitive advantages. For example, McDonalds enjoys outstanding brand recognition and a world class operating system. Marriott enjoys these same benefits in the lodging industry. Successful companies have also learned how to develop and manage relationships with a wide range of organizations, groups, and people that have a stake in their firms. The emergence of a fiercely competitive global economy means that firms have to expand their networks of relationships and cooperate with each other to remain competitive. McDonalds investment in Chipotle was a cooperative venture. As Steve Ells, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Chipotle noted, Weve enjoyed our relationship with McDonalds since the beginning and appreciate the support theyve shown in funding Chipotles growth over the last seven years. Still, weve always operated independently, and that wont change as McDonalds Continues to reduce its investment in Chipotle and focuses on its core business. Strategic management is a process through which organizations analyze and learn from their internal and external environments, establish strategic direction, create strategies that are intended to move the organization in that direction, and implement those strategies, all in an effort to satisfy key stakeholders. Stakeholders are groups or individuals who can significantly affect or are significantly affected by an organizations activities. An organization defines who its key stakeholders are, but they typically include customers, employees, and shareholders or owners, among others. Although larger companies tend to use the strategic management process, this process is also a vital part of decision making in smaller companies. Firms practicing strategic planning processes tend to outperform their counterparts that do not. In fact, executives have reported higher levels of satisfaction with strategic management tools and ideas than with most other management tools. Furthermore, 81 percent of companies worldwide reported doing strategic planning. In North America, the figure was even higher (89 percent). Hospitality firms also benefit from strategic planning, as suggested by a recent study of hotels in the United Kingdom, which found that business performance was positively associated with the thoroughness, sophistication, participation, and formality of strategic planning processes. An example of how strategic analysis can help guide business strategy is shown in Starwood Hotels Resorts efforts to launch a new product. This book also recognizes that there is a difference between the strategic planning process and strategic thinking, and that both are a part of effective strategic management. The strategic planning process tends to be a rather rigid and unimaginative process in many organizations. Strategic thinking, however, leads to creative solutions and new ideas like Starwood Hotels launch of the Heavenly Bed. As illustrated in the Heavenly Bed example, a firm that injects strategic thinking into the strategic planning process has the best of both worlds. THE ORIGIN OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 5 THE ORIGIN OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT The increasing importance of strategic management may be a result of several trends. Increasing competition in most industries has made it difficult for some companies to compete. Modern and cheaper transportation and communication have led to increasing global trade and awareness. Technological development has led to accelerated changes in the global economy. Regardless of the reasons, the past two decades have seen a surge in interest in strategic management. STRATEGIC THINKING AT STARWOOD The Heavenly Bed, first launched by the Westin brand of Starwood Hotels Resorts, has transformed the bed, a basic feature of any hotel room, into a luxurious object of desire, enhancing the revenues of the chain and leaving many hotel operators to follow suit with copycat linens and custom bedding of their own. The strategic process at Starwood began with consumer analysis and product testing. First, Westin commissioned a study involving 600 business executives who travel frequently. The results showed that 84 percent said a luxurious bed would make a hotel room more attractive to them. What is more, 63 percent said a good night s sleep is the most important service a hotel can provide. Half of those surveyed said they sleep worse in hotels than at home. After testing 50 beds from 35 lodging chains, Westin developed its prototype all white Heavenly Bed with a custom designed pillow top mattress, goose down comforters, five pillows, and three crisp sheets ranging in thread count from 180 to 250. Once the product was designed and tested, the fi rm introduced the bed with a carefully planned marketing strategy. USA Today ran a story on the front page of its business section. The same day, 20 pristine white Heavenly Beds lined Wall Street up to the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. Inside the Stock Exchange, Barry Sternlicht, the then Chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels Resorts rang the opening bell and threw out hats proclaiming, Work like the devil. Sleep like an angel. Meanwhile, at New York s Grand Central Station, 20 more beds graced one of the rotundas there, and commuters disembarking the trains were invited to try them out. Similar events were staged the same day at 38 locations across the United States, tailored to each city. Savannahs event featured a bed floating on a barge down the river with a landing skydiver. Seattles event took place atop the Space Needle. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Traditional Perspective As the field of strategic management began to emerge in the latter part of the 20th century, scholars borrowed heavily from the field of economics. For some time, economists had been actively studying topics associated with the competitiveness of industries. THE ORIGIN OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 7 Industry concentration, diversification, product differentiation, and market power. However, much of the economics research at that time focused on industries as a whole, and some of it even assumed that individual firm differences did not matter. Other fields also influenced early strategic management thought, including marketing, finance, psychology, and management. Academic progress was slow in the beginning, and the large consulting firms began to develop their own models and theories to meet their clients needs. Scholars readily adopted many of these models into their own articles and books. Eventually, a consensus began to build regarding what is included in the strategic management process. The traditional process for developing strategy consists of analyzing the internal and external environments of the company to arrive at organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). The results from this situation analysis, as this process is sometimes called, are the basis for developing missions, goals, and strategies. In general, a company should select strategies that (1) take advantage of organizational strengths and environmental opportunities or (2) neutralize or overcome organizational weaknesses and environmental threats. 10 After strategies are formulated, plans for implementing them are established and carried out. Figure 1.1 presents the natural flow of these activities. The first of these ideas was that the environment is the primary determinant of the best strategy. This is called environmental determinism. According to the deterministic view, good management is associated with determining which strategy will best fit environmental, technical, and human forces at a particular point in time, and then working to carry it out. The most successful organization best adapts to existing forces. Some evidence suggests that the ability to align the skills and other resources of the organization with the needs and demands of the environment can be a source of competitive advantage. 12 However, after a critical review of environmental determinism, a well known researcher once argued: There is a more fundamental conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing analysis: the strategy of a firm cannot be predicted, nor is it predestined; the strategic decisions made by managers cannot be assumed to be the product of deterministic forces in their environments. On the contrary, the very nature of the concept of strategy assumes a human agent who is able to take actions that attempt to distinguish one firm from the competitors. Basically, a large firm may decide not to compete in a given environment. Or, as an alternative, the firm may attempt to influence the environment to make it less hostile and more conducive to organizational success. This process is called enactment, which means that a firm can influence its environment. THE PRINCIPLE OF ENACTMENT The principle of enactment assumes that organizations do not have to submit to existing forces in the environment; they can, in part, create their environments through strategic alliances with stakeholders, investments in leading technologies, advertising, political lobbying, and a variety of other activities. 14 Of course, smaller organizations are somewhat limited in their ability to influence some components of their environments on their own. For example, a small restaurant firm may have a difficult time influencing national government agencies and administrators. However, smaller organizations often band together into trade groups, such as the National Restaurant Association, to influence government policy on pressing issues like minimum wage, immigration policy, and health care costs. Also, they may form alliances with other entities. The Global Hotel Alliance is one example, in which Omni Hotels, Kempinski Hotels Resorts, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, Rydges Hotels Resorts, Marco Polo Group, Dusit Hotels Resorts and Landis Hotels Resorts have joined forces to compete against the mega chains. In addition, even a small firm may be able to exert a powerful influence on its local operating environment. The key to enactment is understanding that a firm does not necessarily have to adapt completely to the forces that exist in its operating environment. It can at least partly influence certain aspects of the environment in which it competes. DELIBERATE STRATEGY VERSUS EMERGENT STRATEGY The traditional school of thought concerning strategy formulation also supported the view that managers respond to the forces discussed thus far by making decisions that are consistent with a preconceived strategy. In other words, strategy is deliberate. Deliberate strategy implies that managers plan to pursue an intended strategic course. In some cases, however, strategy simply emerges from a stream of decisions. Managers learn as they go. An emergent strategy is one that was not planned or intended. According to this perspective, managers learn what will work through a process of trial and error. 16 Supporters of this view argue that organizations that limit themselves to acting on the basis of what is already known or understood will not be sufficiently innovative to create a sustainable competitive advantage. In the first week of launching the Westin Heavenly Bed, 32 guests called to ask where they could buy the bed. A light bulb went on. Westin executives put order cards with a toll free number in every room. Then they started placing catalogs by bedsides and desks and set up a web site. By June of 2004, Westin had sold 20,000 pillows $ 75 for the king sized version and 3,500 bed/bedding combos, at $ 2,965 each, enough to spread the idea throughout Starwood, with the Sheraton, St. Regis, and W lines all turning into retailers. The unanticipated success of the Heavenly Bed has spawned a new business companies that help hotels run their retail arms. Boxport, a spin off of San Francisco based hotel procurer Higgins Purchasing Group, operates web sites and catalogs for several chains that now sell Bedding of this example of emergent strategy, it is not a good idea to reject deliberate strategy either. One of the strongest advocates of learning and emergent strategy recently confessed, We shall get nowhere without emergent learning alongside deliberate planning.Both processes are necessary if an organization is to succeed. When Starwood first launched the concept of the Heavenly Bed in 1999, the strategy was a deliberate effort, but the opportunity to provide retail sales was an unintended outcome, and this unforeseen opportunity led to an emergent and highly successful retail strategy, as the above example shows. EFFECTIVE STRATEGIC PLANNING In summary, scholars have determined that both adaptation and enactment are important to organizations. They should adapt to environmental forces when the costs of enacting (influencing) the environment exceed the benefits. However, they should be proactive in creating their own opportunities. In addition, organizations should engage in deliberate strategic planning processes, but they should also be willing to make mistakes and learn from them as they chart a strategic course. In other words, strategy should be both deliberate and emergent, and firms should both adapt to and enact their environments, with the situation determining which option to choose. Westin learned these lessons by paying attention to their customers. The Organization as a Bundle of Resources: The Resource Based View In recent years, another perspective on strategy development has gained wide acceptance. The resource based view of the firm has its roots in the work of the earliest strategic management theorists. 20 It grew out of the question, Why do some firms persistently outperform other firms? One of the first competencies identified was general management capability. This led to the proposition that firms with high quality general managers will outperform their rivals. Much research has examined this issue. Clearly, effective leadership is important to organizational performance, but it is diffi cult to specify what makes an effective leader. Also, although leaders are an important source of competence for an organization, they are not the only important resource that makes a difference. Economic thought also influenced development of the resource based view. Nearly two centuries ago, an economist named David Ricardo investigated the advantages of possessing superior resources, especially land. 22 One of Ricardos central propositions was that the farmer with the most fertile land had a sustained performance advantage over other farmers. More recently, another economist, Edith Penrose, expanded on Ricardo s view by noting that various skills and abilities possessed by firms could lead to superior performance. She viewed firms as an administrative framework that coordinated the activities of numerous groups and individuals, and also as a bundle of productive resources. 23 She studied the effects of various skills and abilities possessed by organizations, concluding that a wide range of skills and resources could influence competitive performance. A common thread of reasoning in the distinctive competency literature and the arguments of Ricardo and Penrose is that organizational success can be explained in terms of the resources and capabilities possessed by an organization. Many modern scholars have contributed to this perspective of the firm. According to this view, an organization is a bundle of resources, which fall into the general categories of: 1. Financial resources, including all of the monetary resources from which a firm can draw. 2. Physical resources, such as land, buildings, equipment, locations, and access to raw materials. 3. Human resources, which pertains to the skills, background, and training of managers and employees, as well as the way they are organized. 4. Organizational knowledge and learning 5. General organizational resources, including the firm s reputation, brand names, Patents, contracts, and relationships with external stakeholders. Envisioning the firm as a bundle of resources has broad implications. For example, the most important role of a manager becomes that of acquiring, developing, managing, and discarding resources. Also, much of the research on the resource based perspective has demonstrated that firms can gain competitive advantage through possessing superior resources. Superior resources are those that have value in the market, are possessed by only a small number of firms, and are not easy to substitute. If a particular resource is also costly or impossible to imitate, then the competitive advantage may be sustainable. A sustainable competitive advantage may lead to higher than average organizational performance over a long period.

Identity Theft Essay -- Stealing Identity Theft Essays

Identity Theft   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In today's society, there is a white-collar crime that has greatly risen in popularity among criminals. This crime is identity theft. Hundreds of thousands of people have their identities stolen each year. Identity theft is when these criminals obtain and use consumers personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, insurance information, and social security numbers to purchase goods or services fraudulently. According to the Federal Trade Commission, over 1.1 million people were the victim of identity theft. With this number, it is very evident that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in our country. This paper will attempt to more thoroughly define identity theft. It will give examples of identity theft by examining the stories of Rosalie Pugliese and Mari Frank. It will show ways in which this very easily committed crime can be avoided, and in the extreme case that a person is a victim of identity fraud, to show the steps one can take to get their lives back on track.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to identityguard.com, identity theft is defined as, ?when someone uses your name or personal information to open a credit account, take out a loan, or make a major purchase. And if they can do it once, they can do it repeatedly, using each new account as a reference for the next one. The result is that identity thieves can run up thousands of dollars worth of charges or obligations all in your name.? In our current society, since there have been a great deal of technological advances made, it is easier than ever for a common criminal to steal a social security number, a bank account number, or any other piece of information which could help a criminal gain access to ones personal finances. Identity thieves can retrieve vital information in many different ways. They can look through your trash at home or at work and retrieve a discarded bill, a piece of mail, or a credit application. They can intercept your mail before it reaches you and take your social security or other information off of it. Identity thieves can pose as a telemarketer, claiming to represent a reputable charity or business, a bank, or even a credit-reporting agency. By doing this, they may be able to coax vital information from a naà ¯ve consumer. ?In some states your Social Security number is printed right on your driver?s license, so an iden... ...hat has been charged under their name, they are very much responsible for getting rid of the unauthorized accounts and restoring credit. This may prove to be a very painstaking effort since most credit companies hate dealing with these types of issues. It is very important, though, to stay persistent in the effort to restore a good credit rating.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission, is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country. It may be the fastest growing white-collar crime out there. With nothing more than your name, your Social Security number, and date of birth, the only thing that can limit an identity thief is the thief?s creativity. They are able to do anything from open credit card accounts to open accounts and take out loans. With this basic information, they can get a job in your name, possibly tarnishing an honest person?s good name. They can apply for anything from cell phones to health insurance. With more than 1.1 million victims of identity theft each year, it is very important to know how to protect yourself from identity theft. It is just as, if not more important to know what to do in the case that your identity is stolen.

7 main approaches in psychology Essay

*Many psychologists may believe that each perspective has valid explanations depending on the specific situation, and this point of view is called eclectic. This term refers to the claim that no one perspective has all the answers to the variety of human thought and behavior. Psychologists tend to use various perspectives in their work depending on which point of view fits best with the explanation. Humanistic (1950s-Present) Carl Rogers-Person-centered therapy and unconditional positive regard Abraham Maslow-Hierarchy of Needs and Self-Actualization Unique aspects of human experience Belief that we choose most of our behaviors and these choices are guided by physiological, emotional or spiritual needs. Humans are free, rational beings with the potential for personal growth, and they are fundamentally different from animals. Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic (1900-Present) Sigmund Freud-Personality and States of Consciousness Carl Jung-the most important and lifelong task imposed upon any person is fulfillment through the process of individuation, achievement of harmony of conscious and unconscious, which makes a person one and whole Alfred Adler-â€Å"IndividualPPsychology,† a term which is sometimes misunderstood. It refers to the indivisibility of the personality in its psychological structure. Unconscious determinants of behavior Belief that the unconscious mind—a part of our mind that we do not have conscious control over or access to—controls much of our thought and action. Unconscious motives and experiences in early childhood govern personality and mental disorders.  Roger Sperry-showed that if the two hemispheres of the brain are separated by severing the corpus callosum (the large band of fibers that connects them), the transfer of information between the hemispheres ceases, and the coexistence in the same individual of two functionally different brains can be demonstrated. George Miller-The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information Physiological bases of behavior in humans and animals An organism’s functioning can be explained in terms of the bodily structures and biochemical processes that underlie behavior. How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences Evolutionary/Darwinian (Also called sociobiologists) (1980s-Present) David Buss-His primary interests include the evolutionary psychology of human mating strategies; conflict between the sexes; prestige, status, and social reputation; the emotion of jealousy; homicide; anti-homicide defenses; and stalking. Charles Darwin-the Origin of Species in 1850. Evolutionary bases of behavior in humans and animals. Examines human thought and behavior in terms of natural selection. Behavior patterns have evolved to solve adaptive problems; natural selection favors behaviors that enhance reproductive success. B.F. Skinner-Operant Conditioning and invented the Skinner Box Effects of environment on the overt behavior of human and animals. Explain human thought and behavior in terms of conditioning and look strictly at observable behaviors and what reaction organisms get in response to specific behaviors. Belief that only observable events (stimulus response relationships) can be studied scientifically.  Noam Chomsky-Theorized the critical-period for language acquisition Herbert Simon-one of the founding fathers of modern research in artificial intelligence Ulric Neisser-focused on pattern recognition, visual search, brief information processing, and memory. Thoughts; mental process Examine human thought and behavior in terms of how we interpret, process, and remember environmental events. The rules that we use to view the world are important to understanding why we think and behave the way we do. Overall, human behavior cannot be fully understood without examining how people acquire, store, and process information.

Conclusion and managerial implications Essay

A streak is a short period of good or bad luck. A team is said to have a winning streak when it wins many games consecutively, and to have a loosing streak when it looses many matches in a row. It is quite easy to say that a team has good players, and therefore has a high chance of winning. Upon closer consideration, though, it may become apparent that the skill and style of play of the teams playing against them has an important part to play, and so are other factors like coaching and the spirit in the players. In this work, we have considered some variables that appear likely to influence the team’s chance of winning. Specifically, we chose opponent 3-points per game, team 3-points per game, team free throws per game, team turnovers per game, opponent turnovers per game, team rebounds per game and opponent rebounds per game as key determining variables in determining the winning chance of a basketball team. We had to deal with the occurrence unusually large or small values in the data, since they affect the final outcome. Therefore we formed a multiple regression model for prediction, and modified it until we came up with a model with six variables. Our model can be trusted to predict the chance of a team winning by up to 80%, and the percentage win can be predicted with an error margin 0. 1479 percentage points about 95% of the time. Our model showed us that the more turnovers a team has and the more rebounds from an opponent, the less the chance of winning. However, the more 3-point shots, free throws and rebounds made, and the more turnovers an opponent makes, the greater a team’s chance of winning. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary 2 Objective of the study 4 Data description 5 Technical report 6 – 12 Conclusion and managerial implications 14 Appendices Appendix I: Descriptive statistics for the variables 15 Appendix II: Box plots for the variables 16 Appendix III: Scatter plots, winning chance vs. each variable 17 Appendix IV: Multiple regression details for 8-variable model 20 Appendix V: Residual plots for the 8 variables 21 Appendix VI: Best subsets regression details 23 Appendix VII: Regression details for 5-variable model 24. Appendix VIII: Residual Plots for 5 variables 26 Appendix IX: Regression excluding residual outliers for 5-variable model 28 Appendix X: Regression for 6-variable model 29 Appendix XI: Residual plots for 6-variable model 30 Appendix XII: (a) The final regression model 32 Appendix XII: (b) Residual plots for the final regression model 33 4 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The objective of his study is to create a regression model for predicting the percentage wining of a basketball team among many basketball teams in a particular basketball season. Regression analysis is a method that aids us in predicting the outcome of a variable, given the values of one or more other (independent) variables. The model thus obtained is examined to ascertain the reliability of its prediction. In our analysis, therefore, we are out to examine a multiple regression model that we shall build, and improve on it until we find the best model for the job. We are motivated by the fact that fans of teams every now and then go into arguments (and even betting) about what chance there is for a particular team to win. Winning a game, we believe, is not entirely a chance occurrence. We therefore want to investigate what factors can be expected to determine the winning chance of a team. We do not expect to get a magical model, but that we will have to modify our model until its predictive ability has been greatly improved. The importance of this work lies in the fact that, without accurate knowledge of the most influential factors affecting a phenomenon, one may end up spending a lot of resources (time, energy and money) on a factor that might not be so important, at the expense of the really important factors. This results in a lot of input with no corresponding output, thereby leading to frustration. This can be especially true in sports and related activities. This work is our little contribution to more efficient planning and sport outing for a basketball team. 5 DATA DESCRIPTION The data that we have used is taken from †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ It presents the statistics for sixty-eight (68) teams in a sporting season. Therefore we shall not be going into issues of time series or other techniques that come into play when dealing with data that has been collected over an extended period. The data presents a list of 68 basketball teams. Each team has played a number of games in a particular basketball sporting season. The spreadsheet contains a lot of information on these 68 teams, such as their winning percentage and vital statistics of the games played in this particular season. In this work, we are going to designate a dependent variable (Y) and seven independent variables (X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7). The variables are defined as follows: Y = Winning Percentage X1 = Opponent’s 3-point per game X2 = Team’s 3-point per game X3 = Team’s free throws pr game X4 = Team’s turnover per game X5 = Opponent’s turnover per game X6 = Team’s rebound per game X7 = Opponent’s rebound per game With the above variables, we shall formulate a regression model for the winning percentage of a team in this data. 6 TECHNICAL REPORT 6. 1 Preliminaries Our first task, having obtained the data, is to examine the descriptive statistics for each of our independent variables. The Minitab result is presented in Appendix I. The data appears to be normally distributed, since the mean and median are close. To further verify this, we will look at the box plots for each of the variables. The box plots reveal that the data is normally distributed, except for â€Å"turnover per game† and â€Å"opponent turnover per game† with one outlier each, and â€Å"home rebound per game† with three outliers. The Box plots are presented in Appendix II. To further understand our data, we still look at the scatter plots of each variable against the winning percentage. This will show us the extent to which each of then influence the winning percentage. Although this is not the final regression model, it presents us with marginal regression relationships between each variable and the winning percentage. The details of the results are presented in Appendix III. The marginal regressions reveal that some of the variables are more influential to the winning percentage than others, but we note that this is not the final regression model yet. On close examination, we observe that Opponent’s 3-point per game accounts for very little of the chances of winning a game, and in fact is negatively correlated with percentage wins of a team. A similar case arises concerning Team’s turnover per game, only that the relationship is even weaker here. The same goes for Team’s rebound per game. The rest exhibit a positive correlation. The strongest correlation observable from the scatter plots is that of Team’s free throws per game, and the weakest positive correlation is that of Opponent’s turnover per game. 6. 2 6. 4. 1 7 Regression analysis is a very useful analysis tool. Moreover, with the aid of modern computers, data analysis is even easier (and sometimes fun) to carry out. The final model we have been able to come up with will help in predicting the winning chance of a basketball team. We would like to state here that our model does not have magical powers of prediction. The predictive accuracy of the model has been stated in the body of this work, and shows us that it does not incorporate EVERY variable that affects the winning chance of a team. It is common knowledge that factors like the co-operation between team management and players, relationship among players, the individual skills of the players and the support of a team’s fans play a very important role in a team’s ability to win a game, and so do many other factors. Yet these factors cannot be quantitatively described so as to be included in the model. Nevertheless, we believe that the variables we have analyzed have very important roles to play, and therefore should not be ignored. We therefore recommend, based on our findings, that a team should strategize its game so as to minimize their turnovers, since from our model they have the strongest negative effect on their winning chance. Similarly, the opponent’s rebound will do damage. On the other hand, a basketball team should, as much as possible, maximize their 3-point shots, free throws, rebounds and the opponent’s turnovers, since according to our model, these have a positive influence on their winning chance. Finally to the sports fan, you can know what to expect from a team if you can observe the above-mentioned variables. So, instead of raising your heart rate in blind anticipation, you can assess for yourself the chance that your favorite team will not let you down. In the meantime, we wish you the best of luck! 8 APPENDIXES 8. 1 APPENDIX I: Descriptive Statistics for the variables 1. Descriptive Statistics Variable N N* Mean SE Mean StDev Variance Minimum Winning percentage 68 0 0. 5946 0. 0197 0. 1625 0. 0264 0. 2333 Opp 3-point per game 68 0 6. 318 0. 107 0. 880 0. 774 3. 788 3-point per game 68 0 6. 478 0. 161 1. 326 1. 757 3. 645 Free throws per game 68 0 14. 203 0. 280 2. 307 5. 323 8. 536 Turn-over, pg 68 0 14. 086 0. 164 1. 355 1. 835 10. 974 Opponent Turn-over,pg 68 0 14. 755 0. 192 1. 583 2. 506 11. 438 Home rebound per game 68 0 35. 380 0. 389 3. 209 10. 297 27. 323 Oppnt rebound per game 68 0 33. 841 0. 258 2. 128 4. 528 28. 970 Variable Q1 Median Q3 Maximum Range IQR Winning percentage 0. 4707 0. 5938 0. 7403 0. 9487 0. 7154 0. 2696 Opp 3-point per game 5. 688 6. 323 6. 956 8. 138 4. 350 1. 268 3-point per game 5. 782 6. 433 7. 413 9. 471 5. 825 1. 631 Free throws per game 12. 619 14. 322 15. 883 19. 568 11. 032 3. 264 Turn-over, pg 13. 116 14. 000 14. 875 17. 656 6. 682 1. 759 Opponent Turn-over,pg 13. 574 14. 769 15. 514 18. 406 6. 969 1. 939 Home rebound per game 33. 304 35. 383 37. 063 45. 548 18. 226 3. 758 Oppnt rebound per game 32. 611 33. 754 35. 047 39. 938 10. 968 2. 436 2. Descriptive Statistics: Winning percentage Variable N N* Mean SE Mean StDev Minimum Q1 Median Winning percentage 68 0 0. 5946 0. 0197 0. 1625 0. 2333 0. 4707 0. 5938 Variable Q3 Maximum IQR Variance Range Winning percentage 0. 7403 0. 9487 0. 2696 0. 026 o. 7154 8. 2 APPENDIX II: Box Plots for the variables 8. 3 APPENDIX III: Scatter Plots (With Corresponding Regression Equations) Regression Analysis: Winning percentage versus Opp 3-point per game The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 729 – 0. 0212 Opp 3-point per game S = 0. 162686 R-Sq = 1. 3% R-Sq(adj) = 0. 0% Regression Analysis: Winning percentage versus 3-point per game The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 397 + 0. 0304 3-point per game S = 0. 158646 R-Sq = 6. 2% R-Sq(adj) = 4. 7% Regression Analysis: Winning percentage versus Free throws per game The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 058 + 0. 0378 Free throws per game S = 0. 138185 R-Sq = 28. 8% R-Sq(adj) = 27. 7% Regression Analysis: Winning percentage versus Turn-over, pg The regression equation is Winning percentage = 1. 14 – 0. 0387 Turn-over, pg S = 0. 155019 R-Sq = 10. 4% R-Sq(adj) = 9. 0% Regression Analysis: Winning percentage versus Opponent Turn-over,pg The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 293 + 0. 0204 Opponent Turn-over,pg S = 0. 160503 R-Sq = 4. 0% R-Sq(adj) = 2. 5% Regression Analysis: Winning percentage versus Home rebound per game The regression equation is Winning percentage = – 0. 243 + 0. 0237 Home rebound per game S = 0. 144773 R-Sq = 21. 9% R-Sq(adj) = 20. 7% Regression Analysis: Winning percentage versus Oppnt rebound per game The regression equation is Winning percentage = 1. 44 – 0. 0249 Oppnt rebound per game S = 0. 154803 R-Sq = 10. 7% R-Sq(adj) = 9. 3% 8. 4 APPENDIX IV: Multiple Regression Details Regression Analysis: Winning perc versus 3-point per , Free throws , †¦ The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 633 + 0. 0224 3-point per game + 0. 0176 Free throws per game – 0. 0622 Turn-over, pg + 0. 0414 Opponent Turn-over,pg + 0. 0267 Home rebound per game – 0. 0296 Oppnt rebound per game – 0. 0172 Opp 3-point per game Predictor Coef SE Coef T P Constant 0. 6327 0. 2123 2. 98 0. 004 3-point per game 0. 022369 0. 007221 3. 10 0. 003 Free throws per game 0. 017604 0. 005720 3. 08 0. 003 Turn-over, pg -0. 062214 0. 007380 -8. 43 0. 000 Opponent Turn-over,pg 0. 041398 0. 006398 6. 47 0. 000 Home rebound per game 0. 026699 0. 004175 6. 39 0. 000 Oppnt rebound per game -0. 029645 0. 004594 -6. 45 0. 000 Opp 3-point per game -0. 01724 0. 01130 -1. 53 0. 132 S = 0. 0747588 R-Sq = 81. 1% R-Sq(adj) = 78. 8% Analysis of Variance Source DF SS MS F P Regression 7 1. 43486 0. 20498 36. 68 0. 000 Residual Error 60 0. 33533 0. 00559 Total 67 1. 77019 Source DF Seq SS 3-point per game 1 0. 10906 Free throws per game 1 0. 53614 Turn-over, pg 1 0. 24618 Opponent Turn-over,pg 1 0. 13117 Home rebound per game 1 0. 13403 Oppnt rebound per game 1 0. 26527 Opp 3-point per game 1 0. 01302 Unusual Observations 3-point Winning Obs per game percentage Fit SE Fit Residual St Resid 2 4. 59 0. 79412 0. 63575 0. 02114 0. 15837 2. 21R 27 6. 60 0. 76667 0. 60456 0. 01272 0. 16211 2. 20R 30 6. 21 0. 50000 0. 65441 0. 01571 -0. 15441 -2. 11R 45 4. 75 0. 25000 0. 39253 0. 02404 -0. 14253 -2. 01R R denotes an observation with a large standardized residual. 8. 5 APPENDIX V: Residuals plots for the 8 variables 8. 6 APPENDIX VI: Best Subsets Regression Best Subsets Regression: Winning perc versus Opp 3-point , 3-point per , †¦ Response is Winning percentage O O H p O F p o p p r p m n p e o e t e n 3 3 e r r – – t n e e p p h t b b o o r T o o i i o u T u u n n w r u n n t t s n r d d – n p p p o – p p e e e v o e e r r r e v r r r e g g g , r g g a a a , a a Mallows m m m p p m m. Vars R-Sq R-Sq(adj) Cp S e e e g g e e 1 28. 8 27. 7 161. 5 0. 13818 X 1 21. 9 20. 7 183. 5 0. 14477 X 2 46. 9 45. 3 106. 1 0. 12021 X X 2 41. 2 39. 4 124. 4 0. 12658 X X 3 55. 2 53. 1 81. 7 0. 11126 X X X 3 54. 9 52. 8 82. 9 0. 11172 X X X 4 73. 8 72. 2 24. 9 0. 085772 X X X X 4 65. 1 62. 9 52. 4 0. 098958 X X X X 5 77. 7 75. 9 14. 6 0. 079790 X X X X X 5 76. 8 74. 9 17. 6 0. 081431 X X X X X. 6 80. 3 78. 4 8. 3 0. 075569 X X X X X X 6 78. 1 75. 9 15. 5 0. 079781 X X X X X X 7 81. 1 78. 8 8. 0 0. 074759 X X X X X X X 8. 7 APPENDIX VII: Regression Analysis with Five Variables Regression Analysis The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 528 + 0. 0250 3-point per game – 0. 0631 Turn-over, pg + 0. 0471 Opponent Turn-over,pg + 0. 0349 Home rebound per game – 0. 0336 Oppnt rebound per game Predictor Coef SE Coef T P Constant 0. 5280 0. 2213 2. 39 0. 020 3-point per game 0.025031 0. 007617 3. 29 0. 002. Turn-over, pg -0. 063103 0. 007859 -8. 03 0. 000 Opponent Turn-over,pg 0. 047061 0. 006531 7. 21 0. 000 Home rebound per game 0. 034908 0. 003176 10. 99 0. 000 Oppnt rebound per game -0. 033572 0. 004713 -7. 12 0. 000 S = 0. 0797903 R-Sq = 77. 7% R-Sq(adj) = 75. 9% Analysis of Variance Source DF SS MS F P Regression 5 1. 37547 0. 27509 43. 21 0. 000 Residual Error 62 0. 39472 0. 00637 Total 67 1. 77019 Source DF Seq SS 3-point per game 1 0. 10906. Turn-over, pg 1 0. 13137 Opponent Turn-over,pg 1 0. 15696 Home rebound per game 1 0. 65508 Oppnt rebound per game 1 0. 32300 Unusual Observations 3-point Winning Obs per game percentage Fit SE Fit Residual St Resid 8 4. 13 0. 83333 0. 66281 0. 02375 0. 17053 2. 24R 13 6. 79 0. 55172 0. 72095 0. 02073 -0. 16923 -2. 20R 27 6. 60 0. 76667 0. 60253 0. 01331 0. 16414 2. 09R 30 6. 21 0. 50000 0. 66321 0. 01474 -0. 16321 -2. 08R 45 4. 75 0. 25000 0. 41575 0. 02187 -0. 16575 -2. 16R. R denotes an observation with a large standardized residual. APPENDIX VII (Continued): Descriptive Statistics for five Variables Descriptive Statistics Variable N N* Mean SE Mean StDev Variance Minimum Winning percentage 68 0 0. 5946 0. 0197 0. 1625 0. 0264 0. 2333 3-point per game 68 0 6. 478 0. 161 1. 326 1. 757 3. 645 Turn-over, pg 68 0 14. 086 0. 164 1. 355 1. 835 10. 974 Opponent Turn-over,pg 68 0 14. 755 0. 192 1. 583 2. 506 11. 438 Home rebound per game 68 0 35. 380 0. 389 3. 209 10. 297 27. 323 Oppnt rebound per game 68 0 33. 841 0. 258 2. 128 4. 528 28. 970 Variable Q1 Median Q3 Maximum Range IQR Winning percentage 0. 4707 0. 5938 0. 7403 0. 9487 0. 7154 0. 2696 3-point per game 5. 782 6. 433 7. 413 9. 471 5. 825 1. 631 Turn-over, pg 13. 116 14. 000 14. 875 17. 656 6. 682 1. 759 Opponent Turn-over,pg 13. 574 14. 769 15. 514 18. 406 6. 969 1. 939 Home rebound per game 33. 304 35. 383 37. 063 45. 548 18. 226 3. 758 Oppnt rebound per game 32. 611 33. 754 35. 047 39.938 10. 968 2. 436 8. 8. APPENDIX VIII: Residual Plots for 5 variables 8. 9 APPENDIX IX: Regression Excluding Residual Outliers Regression Analysis: The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 487 + 0. 0184 Free throws per game + 0. 0240 Opponent Turn-over,pg + 0. 0188 Home rebound per game – 0. 0303 Oppnt rebound per game – 0. 0243 Opp 3-point per game Predictor Coef SE Coef T P Constant 0. 4873 0. 2956 1. 65 0. 105 Free throws per game 0. 018444 0. 009412 1. 96 0. 055 Opponent Turn-over,pg 0. 024021 0. 009784 2. 46 0. 017 Home rebound per game 0. 018835 0. 006555 2. 87 0. 006 Oppnt rebound per game -0. 030258 0. 007625 -3. 97 0. 000 Opp 3-point per game -0. 02428 0. 02129 -1. 14 0. 259 S = 0. 118905 R-Sq = 49. 8% R-Sq(adj) = 45. 7% Analysis of Variance Source DF SS MS F P Regression 5 0. 84309 0. 16862 11. 93 0. 000 Residual Error 60 0. 84831 0. 01414 Total 65 1. 69140 Source DF Seq SS Free throws per game 1 0. 47458 Opponent Turn-over,pg 1 0. 03295 Home rebound per game 1 0. 04175 Oppnt rebound per game 1 0. 27543 Opp 3-point per game 1 0. 01839 Unusual Observations Free throws Winning Obs per game percentage Fit SE Fit Residual St Resid 12 12. 2 0. 3333 0. 5854 0. 0270 -0. 2521 -2. 18R 34 12. 2 0. 9487 0. 6218 0. 0297 0. 3269 2. 84R 42 14. 5 0. 2333 0. 5227 0. 0400 -0. 2893 -2. 58R 43 12. 5 0. 2500 0. 4925 0. 0367 -0. 2425 -2. 14R R denotes an observation with a large standardized residual. 8. 10 APPENDIX X: Regression with 6 Variables Regression Analysis: Winning perc versus 3-point per , Free throws , †¦ The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 565 + 0. 0239 3-point per game + 0. 0163 Free throws per game – 0. 0630 Turn-over, pg + 0. 0436 Opponent Turn-over,pg + 0. 0265 Home rebound per game – 0. 0310 Oppnt rebound per game Predictor Coef SE Coef T P Constant 0. 5654 0. 2100 2. 69 0. 009 3-point per game 0. 023949 0. 007224 3. 32 0. 002 Free throws per game 0. 016290 0. 005717 2. 85 0. 006 Turn-over, pg -0. 062984 0. 007443 -8. 46 0. 000 Opponent Turn-over,pg 0. 043571 0. 006305 6. 91 0. 000 Home rebound per game 0. 026482 0. 004218 6. 28 0. 000 Oppnt rebound per game -0. 031028 0. 004552 -6. 82 0. 000 S = 0. 0755690 R-Sq = 80. 3% R-Sq(adj) = 78. 4% Analysis of Variance Source DF SS MS F P Regression 6 1. 42184 0. 23697 41. 50 0. 000 Residual Error 61 0. 34835 0. 00571 Total 67 1. 77019 Source DF Seq SS 3-point per game 1 0. 10906 Free throws per game 1 0. 53614 Turn-over, pg 1 0. 24618 Opponent Turn-over,pg 1 0. 13117 Home rebound per game 1 0. 13403. Oppnt rebound per game 1 0. 26527 Unusual Observations 3-point Winning Obs per game percentage Fit SE Fit Residual St Resid 27 6. 60 0. 76667 0. 60084 0. 01262 0. 16582 2. 23R 44 6. 03 0. 23333 0. 38536 0. 02559 -0. 15202 -2. 14R 45 4. 75 0. 25000 0. 41158 0. 02076 -0. 16158 -2. 22R R denotes an observation with a large standardized residual. 8. 11 APPENDIX XI: Residual Plots for the 6-variable Model 8. 12 APPENDIX XII (a): The Final Regression Model. Regression Analysis: Winning perc versus 3-point per , Free throws , †¦ The regression equation is Winning percentage = 0. 604 + 0. 0226 3-point per game + 0. 0167 Free throws per game – 0. 0660 Turn-over, pg + 0. 0420 Opponent Turn-over,pg + 0. 0256 Home rebound per game – 0. 0292 Oppnt rebound per game Predictor Coef SE Coef T P Constant 0. 6038 0. 2065 2. 92 0. 005 3-point per game 0. 022564 0. 007108 3. 17 0. 002 Free throws per game 0. 016706 0. 005600 2. 98 0. 004 Turn-over, pg -0. 066016 0. 007456 -8. 85 0. 000 Opponent Turn-over,pg 0. 041969 0. 006229 6. 74 0. 000 Home rebound per game 0. 025649 0. 004152 6. 18 0. 000 Oppnt rebound per game -0. 029173 0. 004561 -6. 40 0. 000 S = 0. 0739739 R-Sq = 80. 8% R-Sq(adj) = 78. 8% Analysis of Variance Source DF SS MS F P Regression 6 1. 37853 0. 22976 41. 99 0. 000 Residual Error 60 0. 32833 0. 00547 Total 66 1. 70686 Source DF Seq SS 3-point per game 1 0. 10202 Free throws per game 1 0. 50620 Turn-over, pg 1 0. 30758 Opponent Turn-over,pg 1 0. 11512 Home rebound per game 1 0. 12372. Oppnt rebound per game 1 0. 22390 Unusual Observations 3-point Winning Obs per game percentage Fit SE Fit Residual St Resid 26 6. 60 0. 76667 0. 60237 0. 01238 0. 16429 2. 25R 29 6. 21 0. 50000 0. 64694 0. 01477 -0. 14694 -2. 03R 43 6. 03 0. 23333 0. 38546 0. 02505 -0. 15213 -2. 19R 44 4. 75 0. 25000 0. 41580 0. 02045 -0. 16580 -2. 33R R denotes an observation with a large standardized residual. APPENDIX XII (b): Residual Plots for the final regression model. APPENDIXXII (b): Continued REFERENCES Please state the source of data here.

Langston Hughes Essays

Langston Hughes Essays Langston Hughes Essay Langston Hughes Essay Essay Topic: Langston Hughes Poems The Poems of Ted Hughes Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Langston Hughes His works have endured for long, and he has served as an inspiration to many. I believe that you should include Langston Hughes the next time you teach this class. He was one of the most noticeable personalities of the Harlem renaissance. Hughes was born in 1902, and he died of health complications in 1967 after a life of struggle and noted accomplishments. Hughes childhood was eventful. He was born in Missouri, but his parents divorced when he was still a child. His grandmother raised him in Kansas, after his father moved out of the country, and his mother moved to various places around the country looking for work. It was not until he was twelve years old that he went to live with his mother in Illinois. The family would later move to Ohio. Hughes began writing at an early age. He showed his talent while he was still in school, where he wrote poems and the school newspaper. He was diversified in his work. Rather than specialize in a specific genre, he chose to diversify his interes ts in poetry, children’s books, autobiographies, novels, plays, and essays. Hughes was proud to identify himself as a black American. He lived at a time when there was an increase in the issue of black pride. African Americans were not afraid to voice their concerns or fight for their rights. Hughes wrote a lot about this. He had enrolled at Columbia University, but he had to drop out. He would later attend Lincoln University, where he was able to complete his education. He traveled to Africa and Europe, and he returned with more confidence and pride concerning his black heritage (Tracy 9). He would often write about his life, and the life of others around him. Some of his poems include â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers†, â€Å"The Negro Mother† and â€Å"Montage of a Dream Deferred†. Other works included the essay â€Å"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain†, where he emphasized the importance of black racial pride, and the play â€Å"Mulatto†. He also wrote autobiographies such as â€Å"I Wonder as I Wander†. His poems and other works reflected his quest for justice and equality. He also spoke against racial segregation. Despite the seriousness of the issues he wrote of, he included humor in his work. Hughes was a jazz poet. His first volume of jazz poems was the â€Å"Weary Blues†, and this earned him recognition in the literary world (Haugen 72). Hughes was a diversified writer, but he was consistent in his writing. The future class seeks to benefit from studying and discussing his works. Hughes was especially sensitive to the suffering of the lower class black American. He did not color his work with flowery language, but he wrote the reality. The future class will benefit by having a realistic view concerning life for the African American before the realization of racial equality in the country. In addition, Hughes used simple language and grammar, and this makes his work easy to read and understand. Hughes was inspired by other writers, both black and white. However, he was not afraid of differing with them concerning the issues he felt were not justified or fair. For instance, one of his inspirations was W. E. B. Dubois, who supported racial segregation. Hughes was not afraid to differ with him concerning the issue, and his work â€Å"Jim Crow’s Last Stand† reflected this (Tracy 10). Hughes’ work reflects why people consider him an outstanding author. He managed to cross obstacles and barriers that were naturally present because of his race. He was able to venture and succeed into new territories as a jazz poet. He had many lists of significant works. In addition to the mentioned works, he also wrote the â€Å"Simple† series, with titles such as â€Å"Simple Speaks his Mind†. Hughes not only fits in the Harlem renaissance movement, but he also helps define it. The literary movement began some time after the First World War and the beginning of the great depression. At this time, African American intellectuals, musicians, and literary artists flourished in the north, especially in the Harlem area of New York. Hughes has had mixed reactions from critics. Some have opposed him strongly, while others have spoken of him favorably, depending on the content of his work. Like the great literary artist he is, Hughes has not let this limit his creative abilities and ingenuity, and this has made his work enduring over the years. Haugen, Brenda. Langston Hughes: The Voice of Harlem. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2006. Print Tracy, C. Steven. A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Print

Teenager in an extreme credit card debt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Teenager in an extreme credit card debt - Essay Example One of the issues is teenagers and the credit card debt. Credit card debt has been an issue especially on campuses. It is said that most of the students have competence in handling these cards. However, it has been found that some of the students get into debt. The causes of these debts among teenagers have been shown to be a belief about future earnings, debts attitudes and financial knowledge (Jill and Phillip 1). Most of the teenagers lack proper financial training. Likewise, those with necessary financial training are not willing to change their behavior. As a result, it has been a big problem with most of the teenagers becoming consumers debtor. Most of the teenagers using these cards lack the necessary information. This is because most teens fail to realize the reality of excessive interest rates and fees on these cards. Majority of the students arrive in schools with cards. Most of the teenagers underscore the time it will take to repay the money with interest (Jill and Phillip 1). The other issue is the reason behind increasing number of teenagers with the cards. The companies make teens their target through promotion. These promotions are meant to lure teenagers to get cards. One of the promotion strategy adopted by the companies is through giving of incentives. Such incentives include giving t-shirts or mugs (Jill and Phillip 1). In addition, the companies remove some of the requirements of getting cards. For example, some companies waive the information requires on the previous cardholder. Some other companies even offer food items. As a result, most of the teenagers are lured into getting these cards without knowing the consequences. Promotion of cards has also been taken in schools. This has occurred as some of the schools accept these cards as a way of paying tuition. In some institutions, students groups sponsor the card companies. In the end, the group retains some amount for each application the

Week 3-Individual small Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 3-Individual small - Assignment Example She decided that since she could not afford to pay 12000 dollars to health care for her first year in self-employment, she would seek more affordable coverage. She found out that she was only eligible for a cheaper insurance at this time of the year based on â€Å"special enrollment." This â€Å"special enrollment† includes elements like unexpected divorce, birth of a baby, and job loss among other circumstances that would make paying the needed money for health cover hard. Though this is a national case of changes in health care, the impact is far felt within the country. The reason for such ignorance is that sources of education for most people on health care changes and the requirement are not reliable and do not give finer details of options that are present. In this article, the author does not directly make a claim to solve the problem but anyone reading her article knows her suggestion. The lesson is that people need to be reeducated on the possibilities and circumstances that surround changes in healthcare insurance coverage as a means to adapt to healthcare reforms (Jean Card, 2014). Jean Card. (2014, July 17). How Obamacare Screwed Up My Small Business Health Insurance - US News. US News & World Report. Retrieved August 28, 2014, from