adam smith :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trade is used as a means of full-filling one’s self interest in a certain commodity. Smith states that when there is nothing left that you need, trading becomes some what of a problem because you aren’t benefiting from it . Smith makes this seen when he talks about â€Å"how the butcher has more meat in his shop than he himself can consume, and the brewer and the baker would each of them be willing to purchase part of it†(WN I.ii.27), but have nothing to give the butcher in return because he doesn’t need any more beer or bread. Since â€Å"every man thus lives by exchanging, or becomes in some measure a merchant, and the society grows to be what is properly a commercial society†(WN I.iv.37) the lack in being able to trade will hurt the society. Money was developed so that the economy would prosper and competition would emerge from prices within the market. Trade of commodities among individuals is the basis of how the market in a nation works.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adam Smith goes on and talks about prices and values of goods and how they are established separately by individuals for their own commodities without causing chaos in the economy. Prices are regulated by labor according to the Wealth of Nations. Labor â€Å"is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities.†(WN I.v.47) Smith states that â€Å"the real price of everything, what everything really costs to the men who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.†(WN I.v.47) The real price of a commodity is determined by the labor put into making it without the inflation. The nominal price is the money value which includes the real price and wages. The market price of a good is â€Å"regulated by the proportion between the quantity which is actually brought to market, and the demand of those who are willing to pay the natural price of the commodity.†(WN I.vii.73) Adam Smith is able to show that the â€Å"labor bel ongs to the labouer; and the quantity of labour commonly employed in acquiring or producing any commodity, is the only circumstance which we can regulate the quantity of labour which it ought commonly to purchase, command, or exchange for.†(WN I.vi.65) Richard Cantillon, one of Smith’s precursors, also agrees that â€Å"prices are fixed by the proportion between the produce exposed for sale and the money offered for it.

Censorship :: essays research papers

Censorship   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The freedom to read is essential to the democratic way of life. But today, that freedom is under attack. Private groups and public authorities everywhere are working to remove both books and periodicals from sale, to exclude certain books from public schools, to censor and silence magazines and newspapers, and to limit controversial books and periodicals to the general public. The suppression of reading materials is suppression of creative thought. Books and periodicals are not the only things being suppressed by pressures to the political and social systems. They are also being brought against the educational system, films, radio, television, and against the graphic and theater arts. Censorship occurs often in todays society, much of which is justifiable, but in some cases is simply unnecessary.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is Obscenity? Obscenity is difficult to honestly discuss. After all, what makes a thing obscene? It is something too vague to be defined. People often see things differently. Some see obscenity in nude pictures, statues, paintings, etc. While others find less obscenity in these things. This is where the discrepancy is found between what should and should not be censored.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The world is filled with obscene things. And it would seem that parents are just trying to protect their children from the outside world. But does it really help? My friends sister was upset with her parents for raising her in such a sheltered environment. When she went away to college, she got a taste of what the real world was really like. These days, an average elementary school student knows many things. They are influenced by a wide range of sources, from television and other forms of media, their environment at home and school, to their personality and background. What they read does not necessarily mean that they will follow it. Literature is a valued source of knowledge for these children, and should not be held back. So rather than applying full censorship, it should be made an age-related censorship. Many complaints were issued about the immaturity of the readers. Younger children should be prevented from borrowing material intended for an older age group. Controversial materials should still be held for special order, available on request, or under a section for parents and teachers who can decide for themselves whether the material is suitable or not.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The concept of censorship is a notable effort to clean up society, but can be over used in areas where it does not apply. Our world is not perfect. We live in a world filled with violence, sex, racism, etc. Certain literature like hard-core pornography should be censored to the general public.

Personal Professional Development Essay

In this section of the report I will explain the importance of continual self  development and implement my own personal development plan (PDP) in line with my organisations objectives. To achieve this I will review the requirements of my employer and its clients and review my own personal needs and determine the skills and knowledge I will need to meet them. I will assess the gaps in my current skills and knowledge in line with the organisational objectives. I will identify my personal learning objectives and start filling those gaps and propose the actions for achieving these objectives. My PDP will be SMART and include measures for success, resources required and target dates for review and completion where appropriate. Continuous self-development is a process in which people take responsibility for their own learning. Self-development can be defined as Maintaining and continuing to improve and develop knowledge and competencies which can improve your performance in the workplace. Developing specific qualities and skills Advancing your full potential as a person by been proactive According to Pedlar et al, (2007) they believe that â€Å"Self-development is personal development, with the person taking primary responsibility for their own learning and for choosing the means to achieve this. Ultimately, it is about increasing your capacity and willingness to take control over and be responsible for events†(p30). As demonstrated by Pedlar et al. (2007) self development is about an individual been proactive and developing their learning capacity by empowering themselves to take control of their own learning and be responsible for it. Another important factor linked to self-development is Developing Greater Self-Awareness. Goleman suggests that self-awareness involves: Emotional self awareness: recognising your emotions and the impact they have on your life. Accurate self-assessment: identifying your strengths and limitations. Self-confidence: knowing yourself worth and capabilities. By improving self awareness we can create opportunities for a better work  life balance , become aware of our emotions, and improve our ability to respond to change. These qualities will enhance the performance of a manager and is important to include these elements when developing a PDP. For continual self-development to take place an individual has to determine how and by what means is required to achieve continual self-development in achieving organisational objectives. According to Martin (2005) â€Å"An organisation is a group of individuals and as individuals develop, so do the organisations that employ them† Martin (2005) suggests Organisations give importance to continual self-development because it is effective for organisations in terms of achieving organisational objectives if the employees develop then so does the organisation. It is important that the business plan objectives of the organisation are taken into consideration when building a Personal Development Plan, as any personal development should complement the organisation’s plans. If people don’t continually self-develop and perform to meet organisational objectives the organisation does not develop and perform to met the organisational objectives. The organisation can become stagnant and fail to achieve the overall strategic company outcome to be financially viable and show a profit. It is important to continually self-develop so an individual can succeed in maintaining their position within the organisation but also to progress and achieve organisational objectives. An example of continual self-development in achieving organisational objectives is to maintain organisational legislation for instance the Health and Safety law. If the individual in the organisation who is responsible for the health and safety law does not comply with the health and safety rules, it could increase the chance that individuals may be hurt. It could also increase the chance that the organisation could be fined for health and safety violations, or that the individual responsible for this role could be suspended or fired for putting the organisation and its employees at unnecessary risk. An example of my continual self-development in achieving  organisational objectives is to continually ensure I am current and up to date with my knowledge of funding eligibility, which is governed by the Skills funding Agency (SFA). If I do not develop my understanding of new legislation set by the SFA the company can become at risk of not meeting the set contractual requirements. This can have a detrimental effect on the company which could lead to loss of revenue or loss of contracts which in turn could result in staff becoming unemployed. To summarise, the performance of employees is directly linked to organisational performance hence the achievement of organisational objectives. The performance of employees can be improved through the continuous self-development process which clarifies the importance of continual self development within an organisation. Personal development plans (PDPs) provide a powerful and flexible way to link employee’s professional and personal development with the development of the organisation. My job role within Intertrain is the National contracts & compliance manager intertrain’s organisational chart is presented in appendix 1 to demonstrate my management role within the organisation. To be able to assess and plan for personal professional development a process needs to take place. It is important in learning new skills or developing new competencies that they are planned and structured. I will use Kolb’s learning cycle as the structure for my PDP, this will implemented to assess and reflect on my current experiences and skills. This will then in turn allow me to review and identify the development opportunities and then test them out and reflect what has been learnt in meeting organisational objectives.

A Reaction and Analysis of “Saving Grace” by Lee Smith

Lee Smith’s Saving Grace is a novel that features the story of Florida Grace Shepherd, a young Appalachian girl who is brought up in an environment that oppresses the rights and freedom of young women based on the expectations of its very religious nature. Grace, who is also the narrator of the story, tells her own tale about her quest for identity and freedom as well as her ultimate religious awakening. She shares her story as she goes through her childhood despising her father Virgil and the reality that unlike other children, she is growing with insufficient love and care from the people she expects to receive it. Grace’s childhood is bound by religious rules and codes since her father is their community's popular charismatic preacher and serpent handler. She is not free to do what other kids can do, and she is not even free to read anything except for the Bible. Grace and her siblings are not even allowed to read the newspaper as their father stresses that the only news they need to know about is the good news from the Holy Scripture (Smith, 2008). Grace also knows that she is an abused child. Aside from the insufficient affection she gets from home, she also suffers painful maltreatments from her father, whom she wants to respect and adore, but he treats her with coldness instead (Smith, 2008). Because of the absurd religious limitations that prevent her from doing what she wanted as a kid, and due to the agony that she suffered from the hands of her father acting as an honorable man, Grace grows up carrying a bitter resentment toward the home she grew up in. She also becomes pessimistic about the good possibilities in life, and she grows up envying everything that made other girls of her age happy (Smith, 2008). Smith's ability to capture the Appalachian way of life and the reality of growing up in an environment full of bizarre religious traditions has been highly regarded by her critics. Moreover, her ability to mold characters based on the known stereotypes in the society has also made her earn the admiration of critics and readers (Town, 2004). Saving Grace is seen by many as a work filled with symbolisms reflected in the names of the characters. Florida Grace Shepherd is in itself a name full of meanings. Florida is based on the place where Grace was born, while Grace stands for the Grace of God. Her last name, Shepherd, can be interpreted as a reminder of her family’s role as shepherds of their community since they represent the people's shepherd, Jesus, in the eyes of their neighbors (Town, 2004) However, while this is the popular impression about their family, Smith (2008) adds an inner conflict in Virgil’s character. Although considered as a sacred and honorable man, Virgil is inclined to bed a lot of women aside from his wife. He also seems to be incapable of controlling his emotions, particularly his bad temper and rage, which he often takes out on Grace. This sinner-saint conflict in Virgil’s character is the greatest confusion for Grace as well. Yet, despite this conflict on Virgil's personality and attitude, he is still able to win the respect of the people in their church because of his devotion and loyalty to what he preaches. Although he can be seen as a man with normal lustful desires, his ability to strengthen other people’s faith in the Lord remains unquestionable, making him respected despite his worldly sins. In the end, the readers would realize that the title of this novel completely explains Grace’s story. Aside from the fact that the story is indeed about saving the main protagonist from losing her faith and her strength to carry on with life, the title may also say that in all the obstacles and trials Grace faced, there is one saving grace which lifted her spirits up and made her hold on to her faith—her strong desire to repent, to change, and to believe that there is really a Supreme Being who governs and looks after her. The ending appears to be open-ended for the author does not clearly state how Grace chose to carry on with her life. However, as she wanted to start anew, it can be inferred that Grace has met her saving grace which made her realize that being doomed and oppressed for a long time can never be good reasons to give up; rather, they are valuable lessons she can carry with her on her journey to rebuild her new life.

Sap with Body Shop

SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software solutions. SAP ® solutions are designed to meet the demands of companies of all sizes. mySAPâ„ ¢ Business Suite solutions are helping enterprises around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. The Body Shop is unifying its worldwide operations on SAP ® enterprise software, deploying the SAP for Retail industry solution across its headquarters, regional offices, warehouses and more than 2,000 wholly-owned and franchise outlets worldwide.The Body Shop, an SAP customer since 1999, chose SAP’s integrated retail enterprise applications to harmonize business processes across its global network, creating a strong yet adaptive foundation for business growth with the SAP NetWeaverâ„ ¢ technology platform. The worldwide rollout, being implemented with support from IT service provider Diagonal Consulting, is part of the retailer’s three-year strategic plan to achieve enterprisewide consistency in forecasting, ordering, allocation and distribution processes.Replacing a number of legacy systems, SAP’s suite of core enterprise applications and specialized software for retailers will cover end-to-end business processes from headquarters down to the store level, powering the company’s financial processes, warehouse and supply chain management, new product development and point-of-sale (POS) operations. Jon Granville, the global head of IT of The Body Shop said, â€Å"We chose SAP for its retail expertise, global reach and solution scope.Our global SAP rollout is not an IT initiative, but a business initiative that will help us improve our key processes that drive competitive advantage at each local outlet. SAP for Retail will help us provide targeted support throughout our sales and distribution network and, ultimately, deliver better service to our customers. † H P with body shop The Body Shop has named HP as its preferred global infrastructure partner to migrate its existing disparate legacy systems to a complete, standards-based HP infrastructure solution.With operations in 52 countries and more than 2,000 stores, The Body Shop has experienced rapid and extensive global growth in recent years. It is estimated that The Body Shop sells a product every 0. 4 seconds, coming to more than 77 million customer transactions annually throughout stores worldwide. HP is delivering a standardised information technology architecture across the firm's global operations, reducing the overall total cost of ownership of IT and providing higher system performance and room for future growth.The consolidated infrastructure will cut management time and cost, ease load balancing, improve system and space utilisation, and optimise the return on investment of The Body Shop's new global enterprise resource planning implementation. The Body Shop's IT vision takes a ‘One World, One Way' approach to its global infrastructure. HP embraced this vision and is helping the company design, build, integrate, manage and evolve into an Adaptive Enterprise ‘ one that will be able to easily adapt to change to meet the needs of its growing business, while ensuring operational readiness and protecting its critical business processes. HP is proving to be a perfect partner,' said Jon Granville, global head of IT, The Body Shop. ‘HP understands the retail sector and our requirements and this allows us to work together on a total global infrastructure solution to achieve our IT vision and so meet the needs of the business.This is a significantly different approach to the other competitive offerings we evaluated, and will ultimately provide us with the means to ensure better visibility of consumer data, streamlined operation of our supply chains and better integration of our processes right across our global businesses. About body shop’s web Body shop has an amazing website. You almost can find everything you want to know on the website such as what ingredients in each product. They separate the categories in a clearly way, for example: they have best seller; make-up; bath and body; hair; fragrance ect. When you click into some products you are interest, you can find out how it works and what the other customer’s view and some suggestion. There are 29 languages on body shop’s web, so Japanese don’t need to worry if they can’t understand English.Also they publish a lot of promotions on the web, such as what is on sale and that gift box they are selling at moment. The web nearly record everything happened in body shop. For example, Body shop sent their employees to the suppliers and report what they find on the internet. The Last report online is about a man called peter, he went to Africa to know how they make Shea butter, he even try to make it by himself and he write about how it feel af ter he used the Shea butter. His report and photos; videos just make us trust body shop more.It’s a special way to make customers to believe how good body shop’s products are. One more amazing thing to me on the web. They have a ‘The Body Shop skin care regime guide’, it’s a questionnaire to help you to know what type skin you are, and after your finish the test, they will give you suggestion about the skin care product and eye care product, they even divide the products into morning and night. It’s really easy and convenient for the first body shop user; it’s also a good tool to help you save the money, because you only need to buy the right products for yourself.

Air Resistance, Tyres And Friction Essays - Classical Mechanics

Air Resistance, Tyres and Friction Blake Smith Dragsters use a combination of large wide tyres or the rear and small narrow tyres on the front this combination is used for the following reasons: The front wheels: The front wheels are very narrow. This is so a minimum of air resistance or drag affects the dragster with lower drag better acceleration an in turn a better top speed can be achieved all leading to a better pass (race time). Now lets try to understand the concept of air resistance and drag. A basic example is placing your hand out the window with your palm facing forwards as you are driving your car along at about sixty kilometres per hour. You will feel a strong force of the wind (air resistance) pushing back at your hand. Now turn your hand side or so that your little finger is facing the front and your thumb is facing the rear at the same speed. The force of air resistance exerted on your hand is greatly reduced. This force is similar as to that exerted on the front wheels of the dragster. Now dragsters reach speeds of up to five hundred kilometres per hour, imagine the force needed to hold your hand against the wind if your palm was facing the front. It would be much easier to hold your hand side on. The same as it would be much easier for the dragsters engine to push the narrow front wheels compared to large ones. Air resistance is a form of friction (namely fluid friction) a friction from the air, as we know friction is defined as a force that opposes movement. The formula used to determine aerodynamic drag is as follows: Drag = 0.5 * rho * Cd * v2 * S Aerodynamic drag is a function of the following: - rho is the air density, which we cannot change. - v2 is velocity squared which is endeavoured to be maximized for the best time and/or pass. - S is the frontal or cross sectional area which we want to minimize. I.e. less frontal area means that a less significant amount of air resistance impedes the top speed and acceleration. - Cd is the coefficient of drag, which we want to minimize. So the two things with which can be worked with or changed, the frontal area and coefficient of drag, both of which need to be to minimized for the best results. Having very narrow front wheels minimizes the frontal area. This is the main reason why narrow front wheels are used. If the smaller the wheel the lower the drag, why not have the wheels narrow and very short as well? You ask. Well the reason is that if the wheels were very small they would drop into all the bumps and cause a loss of speed not to mention control. As the wheels would bounce into the depression and then launch up into the air as they come out of the bump. This is extremely dangerous in that the driver can no longer steer the vehicle that is travelling at near five hundred kilometres per hour, the car can also get air flowing underneath the car, with the effect of air resistance the car will lift up of the ground and flip through the air. Also the rotational force is much harder on the bearings causing more wear and friction meaning slower times. Large wheels are used because they will skim over the bumps and keep the car moving along a flat plane. They also exert less force on the bearings meaning less friction and better times. Now if drag cars use narrow front wheels so they can get less air resistance and a better top speed why don?t all racing vehicles run narrow front wheels? The answer is friction. The front wheels of drag cars do not have high cornering or driving force travelling trough them. I.e. they are only there to hold the front of the car up and allow it to roll along the road. In conventional racecars high forces are exerted on the tyre in the horizontal plane meaning that they need to have a good tread area so that they grip the road well and hold the car on the track so it does not slide off

Prompt 4 - Gentiva Health Services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Prompt 4 - Gentiva Health Services - Essay Example This would ensure that the activities of the company remain profitable in both short-term and long-term basis. The company recorded a noticeable decrease in revenue in 2012. Previously, the company has made several acquisitions and dispositions. This is likely to have been one of the main attribute that led to this loss amidst other factors. This paper explores the financial trend in Gentiva for 2011 and 2012. Financial Performance In the past two years, Gentiva has experienced significance changes in its financial performance. This is largely dependent on the strategic changes that the organization has decided to implement. Considering the financial results of the 2011 and 2012 periods, the following analysis can be reached. The company registered a 6% decrease in revenue for the third quarter of 2012 compared to the same period 2011(from $449.7million to $424.4 million). The loss from continuing operations decreased tremendously from $15.82 per diluted share in 2011 to $0.02 in 201 2 third quarter. The company recorded $19.1 million non-cash write-off in connection with a rebranding of its operations into one name. For the same period in 2011, the company registered a $643.3 million for a non-cash impairment of a failed test of its goodwill. The company sold 9 health branches and closed 25 home health branches as well as 9 hospice branches, all in different locations. This move was reached after a comprehensive structure analysis aimed at responding to challenging Medicare reimbursement rate environment. Moreover, the company closed four more home health branches in 2012. In response to these closures and sales, the financial results of the second quarter and the first six months decreased by approximately $22 million and $41million respectively in 2012 compared to the same period in 2011. Though, the first quarter of 2012 represented 182 (29 days in February 2012) working days compared to 181 working days in 2011, the company revenues went down significantly in 2012 (Gentiva Health Services Reports Third Quarter 2012 Results). The company has maintained a good cash balance for the year 2011 and 2012. Its total assets reduced due to the sale of the 34 branches in 2011 and 10 branches in 2012. It is evident from the revenues accrued in first six months of 2011 and 2012, that the company has instituted measures to manage its costs. The sale and closure of the various branches has enabled the company to significantly cut-down its expenditures. With the reduced expenditures, the company has moved ahead to make more acquisitions to counter the reduction in revenue arising from the closure of the hospice and health care branches that took place in 2011 and early 2012. Its ability to record capital gains and huge profits is also an indication that the business has been able to control its costs. Nevertheless, the health care reform is a forceful measure that may affect many health service providers, Gentiva included. Thus, it is not satisfactor y to say that the company is able to totally manage its costs before the health care reform comes into force in 2014. Emerging Changes in 2011 And 2012 The Company received earnings amounting to approximately $5.9 million in the second quarter and recognized a receivable of about $0.5 million in 2012. In the second quarter of 2012, 8 home health branc