Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Marketing Analysis Marketing Strategies - 1217 Words

There are many businesses that use various techniques to sell their product or service. Marketing Strategies is a process of using the marketing mix which consists of place, product, price and promotion to satisfy and attract consumers to make a profit for the organisations. Place: The location of the business/market where the main transactions are implemented Price: The amount a consumer is willing and able to give for a product/service or good Product: Anything that can be offered within a business to meet customer needs and wants Promotion: The publishing of a product service or organisation to increase sales or increase public awareness Marketing Techniques are the different types of strategies combined together and designed to meet†¦show more content†¦Market Penetration: A group of customers who may purchase a product. Market Development: When a company markets an existing product o a new market. Product Development: Where a business develops a new product to sell to an existing customer. Diversification: Where a business markets new products to sell to new customers. JD Introduction: JD is a British national business that is involved with international marketing sale for many different products including footwear, equipment, accessorise and much more. JD uses different types of strategies to get their products and their services sold. JD’s target market is for those who are sporty or those who are interested in the fashion industry. Aims and Objectives: †¢ Increase Customer Base †¢ Increase Market Share †¢ To be the UK’s leading high street retail store for sports and leisure Branding: Branding is the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s mind through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. A brand normally consists of a name, term, sign, symbol or any other features that identifies one seller’s products/services as diverse from those of other sellers. JD trademarks and patents all their products so that no one marks or takes their ideas and their brands. A brand can be a powerful selling tool and can help achieve marketing aims and objectives such as gaining marketing leaderships and raising customer awareness. Branding is important and essential to JD as it isShow MoreRelatedMarketing Analysis : Marketing Strategy Essay1248 Words   |  5 Pages Marketing is an essentially about marshalling the resources of the organization so that they can meet the changing needs of the customers on whom the organization depends. As a verb, marketing is all about how an organization addresses its markets. Marketing is â€Å"The management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies the customer requirements efficiently and profitability†. Marketing is the performance of the business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the producerRead MoreMarketing Analysis : Marketing Strategy Essay1577 Words   |  7 PagesA) Marketing is a management process which responsible for satisfy customers needs and wants , and it is a social process by which organizations and individuals gain what they want and need through create values and exchange between each others. Marketing gives you an opportunity to gain profits with your business and build long-lasting relationships with customers. 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In the solar Industry a great part of the promotion effort lies in the downstream, and this is where SolarCity put a greater effort: on the 2,510 employees (2012), 661 work in sales and marketing and 248 work in customer care (SolarCity, â€Å"SolarCity annual report 2013†Read MoreMarketing Analysis : Marketing Strategy1525 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Marketing is nothing but the process to sell the product to the consumers in order to satisfy customers’ needs and to obtain profits. In today’s competitive environment, there is a necessity for many companies to be globalized, to remain in this competitive market and satisfy customer’s needs across the world. Marketing a product internationally is a little difficult job for the company who is planning to launch their products internationally. Many manufacturing companies have the expertiseRead MoreMarketing Analysis : The Marketing Strategy Essay2077 Words   |  9 PagesIntroduction Citigroup has four primary business segments, retail banking, commercial banking, Citi-branded cards, and Citi retail services. Our firm analysis will focus on the Citi-branded cards segment and commercial banking in the North American market. Financial performance Over the five years to 2016, revenue is expected to decline an annualized 2.8% to $7.5 billion. The company s North American consumer banking segment performed well in 2014 due to rising loan balances. However, revenuesRead MoreMarketing Analysis : Marketing Strategy1194 Words   |  5 PagesMarketing is shifting from mass communication to individual, one to one interaction with the integration of various digital technologies like SMAC. Also the marketing strategy is shifting from product push to customer pull strategy. Digital marketing is picking up fast and intense market research is being resorted to by companies on their products to understand customers’ preferences and sentiments before targeting/positioning their products and services. Companies have started having their webpageRead MoreMarketing Analysis : Marketing Strategy1611 Words   |  7 PagesMarketing Strategy Research Paper Naugie Pratt Strayer University MKT- Marketing Management February 28, 2016 â€Æ' Marketing Strategy Research Paper Summary After careful review of the multinational companies that are out there today, I decided to go with HTC. As many of us know HTC is well known for their carefully crafted mobile products. HTC is mainly known for the cell phones to many but let’s take a look at things in reference to tablets, televisions and computers. As the new market managerRead MoreMarketing Analysis : Marketing Strategy959 Words   |  4 PagesMarketing has been around since the beginning of time. When the Neanderthals figured out what fire was, it took some convincing to make others realize that it was good. They were afraid of it to begin with but when one person used it to cook its food, they started to understand that it was a good thing. Marketing was born. In the 1950s, the marketing strategy was based on the 4Ps (Product, Promotion, Place, and Price) or what was known as the â€Å"Marketing Mix† (Tanner, Jr Raymond, 2012, pg. 5)

Monday, December 23, 2019

Row Level Security And Virtual Private Database - 1485 Words

Row Level Security/ Virtual Private Database Row level security is important in this application because data related to many different users are stored in the database. It would be wasteful to assign each student to their own database, hence the need of a centralized database , but we cannot give full access to the data by the student. Consider an instance where a student should only be able to view or modify the rows of data that matters specifically to him. We can achieve this through creating a row level security or virtual private database. VPD enables the developer to enforce security, directly on tables, views or synonyms. It provides row level access control beyond that of views, since it uses all the data manipulation languages†¦show more content†¦VPD can be implemented using stored procedures CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION specific_users ( p_schema IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL, p_object IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL ) RETURN VARCHAR2 AS BEGIN RETURN project_name = v( APP_USER ) ; END specific_users; / SQL INJECTION The user can influence the SQL code, this is usually as a result of the developer not properly using the right code. The user with some knowledge of SQL will like to put in some values in the form to try and query a database, this might select information from APEX application item, find items, and learn about the application and then can hack the app easily, or execute any DDL command that will alter the database objects. Situation where the SQL statement is concatenated by substitution strings and static portion of the query, such that the user provides the values. A section of PL/SQL that is susceptible to SQL injection l_sql := SELECT *FROM project WHERE project_name = ||p_project_name|| ; When a user enters any valid name in the database report, but not the right data, the database only ensures that the statement is syntactically correct , and parses it. Some records can be obtained instead of the required one. Solution to this attack is to use a bind variable, these are evaluated during the bind phase of processing a query, the SQL will be

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Relevant and Non-Relevant Costs Free Essays

South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCEG), a principal subsidiary of SCANA Corporation, makes life convenient by bringing electricity and natural gas to homes and businesses. The company also provides residential, commercial, and industrial builder service firms the energy they need for construction (www.sceg. We will write a custom essay sample on Relevant and Non-Relevant Costs or any similar topic only for you Order Now com). The company also has telecommunications services and other businesses which involve non-regulated energy. To supply electricity and natural gas, SCEG operates 22 various plants, most of which are coal plants. Today, SCEG serves nearly 1 million customers in South Carolina (â€Å"SCEG Quick Facts†). The coal plants of SCEG emit nitrogen oxide. Also known as NOx, this is one of the compounds that form smog in the atmosphere. Thus, the company has been making efforts to lower the emission of NOx. Just recently, SCEG has installed the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) equipment on Wateree Station and Williams Station, the two largest plants of the company to reduce NOx emission. This has cost them $138 million (www.sceg.com). The company has also invested 80 million dollars on equipment for emission and pollution control (Zaleski, 2007). In 2008, the firm has decided to install the SCR equipment on the Cope Station as well. The project, which started on the summer of 2007 and will end on the fall of 2008, will cost the company 69 million dollars (Zaleski, 2007). This amount includes relevant costs (i.e., costs that are significant to a specific decision) such as the cost of the equipment and the cost of installation (CITATION). The previously mentioned expenditures prior to the Cope Station project–the investment on SCR equipment and on the emission and pollution control equipment—are considered sunk costs. Whether SCEG would push through with the Cope project or not, the costs of these equipments have already been incurred. Hence, they are irrelevant to the project. SCEG reported in its statement of projected expenditure that the budget for the Cope Station project was $ 26 million (â€Å"SCANA Corp. 2007-2009 Projection Expenditure,† 2007). Since the investment would cost $ 69 million, it would result in a budget deficit of $ 43 million. This implies that the company had to make budget adjustments in order to fund the said project. When the project is complete, it would surely result in â€Å"clean, safe, and reliable power source for [the] citizens and industries† (Zaleski, 2007). Although it would not bring the company explicit financial benefits, by making the plant environment-friendly, the project can further contribute to the healthy relationship of SCEG with its neighboring communities. Moreover, this may â€Å"attract new industries [to invest] in [the] area† as the environment becomes free of the polluting NOx (Zaleski, 2007). Reference About SEG.. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2008 from http://www.sceg.com/en/about-sceg/ Builder services. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2008 from http://www.sceg.com/en/builder services Nitrogen oxides. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2008 from http://www.sceg.com/en/my-community/environment/air/nitrogen-oxides/ Residential services. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2008 from http://www.sceg.com/en/residential-services/ SCANA Corporation 2007-2009 projections for capital expenditures and cash flows. (9 February 2007). Retrieved January 26, 2008 from http://www.secinfo.com/dN11u.u3.c.htm SCEG quickfacts. (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2008 from http://www.sceg.com/NR/rdonlyres/26ADE7BE-0699-41C8-84C7-32C488E5292A/0/SCEGQuickFacts.pdf Zaleski, G.. (6 November 2007). SCEG investing $69 million in Cope plan to reduce emissions. The Times and Democrat. Retrieved January 26, 2008 from http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2007/11/06/news/12812156.txt How to cite Relevant and Non-Relevant Costs, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Marketing Fashion Strategy Branding and Promotion †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Fashion for Strategy Branding and Promotion. Answer: Introduction All the profit-making organisations set up marketing plan as it helps an organisation to generate greater revenue. An organisations strategy combines with all marketing objectives that may lead to one comprehensive plan. In order to set marketing strategy, an organisation needs to marketing research. Marketing strategy should focus target market of an organisation. Each of the company has its own distinct target market. This report focuses on the Australian based fashion clothing organisation Jeanswest. In the first part of the report, concept of the target market will be discussed with analyzing the selected target market of Jeanswest. In the latter part, marketing strategy of Jeanswest will be analysed through theoretical standpoint. Lastly, recommendations will be given based on the analysis. Jeanswest is an Australia based apparel organisation which as chain stores all over Australia and this organisation is operated under Glorious Sun. Jeanswest operates mainly on casual fashion clothing, jeans, denim, mens clothing and womens clothing. The organisation is famous for collection of blue denim both females and males. Jeanswest has its distinct division for maternity wears for women. Jeanswear organisation has more than 218 stores in all over Australia and New Zealand. In addition, Jeanswest started its journey in the year 1972 when it established its first store in Perth (Jeanswest.com.au. 2017). In the first occasion, this organisation started its business in Western Australia. Glorious Sun made the acquisition of the organisation in the year 1994. However, it has Jeanswest Australia store in Mauritius and in the Middle East. Jeanswest is famous for women denim jeans. This organisation has complete range of women denim and it is famous within the age range between 13 and 40. Blue denim is their best selling product under the category of women section. This organisation has its online store and customers can select their products through images with having various sizes and colour. The indigo denim for women of Jeanswest sells most in Australia for women. The denim looks like the sturdy cotton textile through which the weft in jeans passes under warp threads. The organisation sells the product of women jeans using tag line of Fits Best. The division of women denim ranges vastly, named, high wasted skinny, distressed cop, patched slim and straight jeans. Target Market In order to set a target market of an organisation, it is needed to segregate the market segmentation. Market segmentation can be categorised into four bases. The first one is geographic segmentation and it is based on customers location, region, rural-urban division and classification of customers. As stated by Baker (2014), demographic segmentation is based on age, gender, occupation, socioeconomic group. Behavioural segmentation of customers is based on rate of usage of products, benefits, loyalty status and readiness to buy a product from the organisation's store. Lastly, psychographic segmentation is about personal preferences, lifestyles of customers, class and attitudes of the customers. In this regard, segmentation of Jeanswest makes its market segmentation. This organisation follows the segments of demographic and behavioural bases. In demographic bases, the organisation mainly focuses on ages of the customers. In fashion clothing industry, teenagers and Middle Ages customers opt to choose new fashion clothes. In addition, as these products are costly according to market price, Jeanswest chooses higher earning class. Jeanswest organisation chooses both males and females as their segments of choices as both genders wear denim jeans. Moreover, in behavioural segment, the organisation focuses on loyalty of the customers. Jeanswest has a great customer base in Australia and they started Frequent Flyer' loyalty programme for the customers. This loyalty programme provides great rebate and deals to the selected customers. Therefore, the selected target market of the organisation is teenage section and middle aged individuals in denim jeans. Target market of Jeanswest is mainly upper-class people of Australia as the denim is costly. Blued denim has great demand and mainly women shop regularly from stores all over Australia and these denim jeans cost for women from $99 to $199. Target customers of Jeanswest have repeat purchasing value as this organisation provides loyalty bonus and the customers are ready to purchase new arrivals always. Moreover, the organisation launched Butt Cam jeans for women stating that these jeans have lifetime guarantee with recognition to the valued customers giving discounts up to 15%. In positioning of the products, the organisation selects the stores and it has more than 190 stores in Australia and other stores in New Zealand, China and the Middle East. Most of the stores are in an urban section and these are near metropolitan cities. However, Jeanswest has online stores and people all across Australia can shop from this having discounts. As stated by Weinstein and Cahill, (2014), in case of value proposition, the organisation focuses on fashionable clothing that can afford most of section of target market. Jeanswest strategy to retrain target market is to provide cutting edge fashion and that must have latest styles for women. In addition, in retaining customers, Jeanswest gives large choices to the target customers from which they can choose their clothes. Moreover, organisation reduces manufacture quantity of each product that creates artificial scarcity in the market and target customers start purchasing the products from time it hits the market. Marketing strategy Marketing objectives of the organisation Jeanswest are: To increase customer satisfaction To continue to grow by extending Jeanswest fashion brand globally To extend market share by 5% by the end of 2018 To increase brand awareness among consumers and profitability Jeanswest organisation focuses mainly on the brand loyalty of the organisation and setting a target market with middle ages and teenagers. Jeanswest organisation brings the latest design in world and the customers have the best fabric and blue denim. Marketing of Jeanswest is based on the position in the market. Jeanswest organisation has competitors in the Australia, the competition in market are, David Jones, Myer, Pop-up retail, Country Road and Cue. Jeanswest needs to have a good marketing strategy in order to cope up in market. Philip Kotler stated that marketing mix is a combination that should be controlled by the organisation to motivate customers to buy products. Marketing Mix of Jeanswest: As commented by Hennart (2014), products of an organisation can be both tangible and intangible. All the products of an organisation must have product life cycles. Organisations marketing team should know the unique selling proposition and benefits that products offered. Jeanswest organisation is a fashion brand that makes apparel for both male and females. Jeanswest organisation sells best apparel in market of Australia and their blue denim jeans are famous. Moreover, the organisation has great range of female jeans and blue denim have a great customer base. In addition, this organisation has brought a range of maternity jeans for women with large waist size. Jeanswest organisation researches the market according to the needs and desires of the customers. Their products suit the Australian weather and culture and college going girls and middle aged women largely buy their products. Jeanswest has brought long straight jeans for Middle East women and they have bought Icon jeans for me n. It makes clear that variety and quality both are important for Jeanswest. Price is all about the amount that the end users have to pay for a product. Pricing has perceived value of a product rather than the objective cost (Poon et al. 2017). An organisation must have a pricing strategy before sells a product and it must achieve the revenue target of the organisation. Jeanswest organisation takes higher-pricing strategy as price is higher than the local market. It makes a sense that organisation sells quality product to the customers with global name. The other brands with affordable clothing are competitors of Jeanswest. Jeanswests price strategy can be called price skimming as the organisation charges highest price and the customers need to pay the price initially. In this way, the demands of products get satisfied, Jeanswest lowers the price in the more-price sensitive segment. Customers of Jeanswest are mainly fashion conscious and they are from upper-income group millennial. In female jeans products, the ranges of product in pricing are various and cus tomers can choose among various price range. As stated by Bharadwaj (2015), the customers provide values to product pricing. In this way, if values are positive, then the products will be a hit in the market. In recognising the perceived value of a product, Jeanswest can make a survey in the market through social media. As opined by Lueg et al. (2015), place is related to concept of where the customers can get the products. In making choice about place, the organisation needs to set the distribution channel. The place strategy of products to the stores plays a vital role. David Jones, the rival in the market of Jeanswest sends the new products in the stores within 30 days of the launching and this strategy sells the products more. Accessing products in large quantity and proper place is needed by customers. In Australia, Jeanswest organisation has more than 190 shops and online presence. However, the organisation is trying to expand the online stores and it would enable the organisation to reach a large number of customers. All stores of the organisation are near large city; customers can check new design through online and buy them in the stores. Promotion is the market communication strategy to the target customers, in this respect; the organisations select the promotional activities. These strategies include social media advertisements, television advertisements and hoardings. Promotions increase public relation to organisation and increase brand value (Brito et al. 2105). The promotion makes the connection to organisation and end-users. In entire marketing function, promotion is the communication aspect. In selling their new denim or designer clothing, Jeanswest organisation does not make aggressive advertisements. Jeanswest uses word-of-mouth public relation. Jeanswest tries to make customers happy as the organisation sells best quality products. The distribution and pricing strategy of the organisation play an important role in promotion. Sometimes, the Jeanswest organises fashion week to promote their newly launched ranges of products. This increases brand popularity. Moreover, in a social network, the organisation has strong presence. Jeanswest engages the customers in social media and they make loyalty programme. In making advertisement campaign, the organisations can arrange promotional partners and in fashion retail industry, power of partnership is very important (McAlexander et al. 2016). Most importantly, Jeanswest organisation focuses on the ethical sourcing in production of jeans and denim. The organisation follows standard code of conducts in manufacturing the products with signing the cotton pledge on the website of the organisation. Recommendations Jeanswest organisation is not in the industry and it has several competitors in the market. However, this organisation is trying to make its foothold as a global organisation. Jeanswest organisation follows vertical integration in merchandising the products in the Australian market. However, in marketing the products and correcting the target market, some of the recommendations as follow: Jeanswest organisation can target through interested fashion trends of the customers. Of late, customers are getting more fashion conscious; Jeanswest organisation can target the customers who are conscious about their looks. The people who like to shop and socialise can be new target customers. Jeanswest organisation takes price skimming strategy; however, affordable pricing strategy would help the organisation to penetrate to middle-class people. Reaching a large number of consumers will eventually increase the sales. EDLP (Everyday Low Price) strategy will increase customer base Social media marketing is not strong of the organisation; however, it has social networking pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube. Jeanswest has 1,33,000 (approx) likes on Facebook. Social media marketing is cost-effective and can reach the customers easily with attractive images and contents. Jeanswest organisation needs to take social media strategy effectively with community support programmes that will enhance their CSR. Conclusion Jeanswest organisation is one of the largest fashion retail organisations that sell mostly luxury denim jeans. Jeanswests target markets are selective and the organisation needs to flourish it. The organisation needs to alter the pricing strategy in order to reach large market segment. Visual branding is now important, Jeanswest organisation can start digital marketing through social media and best quality images must be posted there. In a country like Australia, fashion retail and apparel industry have scope to flourish and Jeanswest organisation with focusing mainly demand of the consumers rather than competition. Reference List Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014.Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia. Baker, M.J., 2014.Marketing strategy and management. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Bharadwaj, S., 2015. Developing new marketing strategy theory: addressing the limitations of a singular focus on firm financial performance.AMS review,5(3-4), pp.98-102. Brito, P.Q., Soares, C., Almeida, S., Montes, A. and Byvoet, M., 2015. Customer segmentation in a large database of an online customized fashion business.Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing,36, pp.93-100. Hennart, J.F., 2014. The accidental internationalists: a theory of born globals.Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice,38(1), pp.117-135. Jeanswest.com.au. 2017. Our History. Available at: https://www.jeanswest.com.au/en-au/about-us/history.htm [Accessed on: 29 Aug. 2017] Lueg, R., Pedersen, M.M. and Clemmensen, S.N., 2015. The role of corporate sustainability in a low?cost business modelA case study in the Scandinavian fashion industry.Business Strategy and the Environment,24(5), pp.344-359. McAlexander, J.H., Koenig, H.F. and DuFault, B., 2016. Millennials and Boomers: increasing alumni affinity and intent to give by target market segmentation.International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing,21(2), pp.82-95. Mohr, I., 2013. The impact of social media on the fashion industry.The Journal of Applied Business and Economics,15(2), p.17. Poon, E.W.N.J., Lam, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2017. Design and Development of Intelligent Decision Support Prototype System for Social Media Competitive Analysis in Fashion Industry.Fashion and Textiles: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice, p.211. Posner, H., 2015.Marketing Fashion: Strategy, Branding and Promotion. Laurence King Publishing. Weinstein, A. and Cahill, D.J., 2014.Lifestyle market segmentation. Abingdon: Routledge.

Friday, November 29, 2019

Best WooCommerce Support Extensions Compared Help Scout vs Freshdesk vs Awesome Support

Customer support is usually the unsung hero behind plenty of e-commerce operations. If you dont have a decent system and competent agents in place, sooner or later your sales will be adversely affected. Thats why WooCommerce support extensions are crucial for anyone serious about their business.There are plenty of support  extensions available (and loads of WooCommerce extensions in general), all helping you to provide a better experience for your customers. In this piece,  weve narrowed the choices  down to the best three WooCommerce support extensions. Well look  at what makes them  so valuable, and how each solution fares  against each other. Help Scout vs Freshdesk vs Awesome SupportHelp ScoutFreshdeskAwesome SupportPrice of the extension (for a single site)$79$79$49Price of the service (per month, per agent)Free or $79 for the first premium tierFree or $16 for the first premium tierFreeSupported agents (for the basic tier)Unlimited3UnlimitedSupport channelsVia WordPr ess and via their platformVia WordPress, via their platform, and via phoneVia WordPressSupport for knowledge basesYesYesYes (another add-on)The value of WooCommerce support extensionsA good support experience is valuable for any service website, and doubly so for WooCommerce  sites. Big names such as Amazon understands this, going  above and beyond to provide an excellent  experience. This might seem like a waste of resources, especially when you could be focusing on internal  matters such as improving your invoicing  systems, but its arguably one of the reasons why the big companies dominate the market.Simply put, if youre committed to providing high-quality support,  installing a  WooCommerce support extension could improve your brand and customer experience, ultimately increasing your sales.The best WooCommerce support extensions comparedBelow, weve chosen three WooCommerce support extensions to focus on. Weve looked at their main features,  how well they integrat e, their price, and a quick consideration of each solutions best use case. Theyre in no particular order, so lets get started!Help ScoutHelp Scout is a big name in the support industry, with notable customers such as Basecamp, Buffer, and Pocket. They arent built exclusively for e-commerce support, but the necessary  functionality is included all the same.Main featuresCustomers can make multiple reports and check  on their status on a  personal dashboard.You  can  start conversations with customers while checking individual orders and posts.You can add Carbon Copy (CC) and Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) report recipients. This is perfect if you want to be kept in  the loop for tickets  while letting others handle them.Ability to handle reports from within WooCommerce, or through the Help Scout platform.You can embed customizable forms on your pages.Integration with WooCommerceAlthough Help Scout does enable you to handle reports within your store, you need to pay for a subscr iption on top of purchasing the extension. Once the extension is set up and youre subscribed, youll need to manually link your Help Scout account to WooCommerce.Price$79, $99, and $199 yearly subscriptions for the extension, which entitles you to support and updates. Afterwards, youre free to continue using the extension, albeit without further support.A  Help Scout subscription will cost you $20 or $40 per user, per month unless you stick to the free plan, which limits you to a single mailbox.When to consider using Help ScoutHelp Scout is a  robust support tool that  handles tickets from orders and posts, complete with  the option of automatically forwarding report copies via email.FreshdeskFreshdesk includes support for both WordPress sites and WooCommerce operations. It enables users to handle tickets in an organized fashion through the use of tags and categories, and to manage automatic replies.Main featuresEnables users to check their active tickets through their WooCom merce accounts.Provides your support team with private forums to discuss internal issues.Connects specific products to Freshdesk forums and categories, for easier management.Enables you to create a custom knowledge base that tackles the most common support issues for your operation.Lets  your team to provide support via Voice Over IP (VoIP) using the Freshdesk platform.Integration with WooCommerceSimilarly to  Help Scout, Freshdesk requires you to both purchase its extension and create an account on their platform to get started, then link your desired products.Price$79, $99, and $199 yearly subscriptions for the extension, including updates and support. You are free to keep the extension afterwards, but youll have to renew your subscription to access those features again.There are several pricing tiers for  Freshdesk: Free, $19, $35, $49, and $89 per month, per agent.When to consider using FreshdeskFreshdesk is ideal for providing your support team with a tool that enables th em to collaborate on support issues. In addition, it includes also a VoIP option if youd like  to go down that route.Awesome SupportAwesome Support in itself is an awesome (pun intended) tool if you want to provide support directly via your main WordPress website. And with this additional WooCommerce extension, you can integrate your store tightly with your way of handling customer support.Main featuresAll your e-commerce products visible in the Products tab of Awesome Support by default.Enables customers to leave feedback on their purchases, and send in support tickets.Every ticket can be linked to its corresponding order.Customers can specify which product within the order the ticket is related to.Everything is tied together, support tickets, products, and orders.Easy to use for your customers they can go to their account page, find a specific order theyre having problems with, and click the Get Help button to submit a ticket. All within a single dashboard.Integration with WooC ommerceThe integration in this case is very straightforward. All you need to do is first install and activate the main Awesome Support plugin, which is free. And then, install and activate the WooCommerce extension. After that, youre good to go. No sign-up anywhere needed.Price$49 (single site), $88 (two-five sites), $158 (unlimited sites). Each of these plans also entitles you to a full year of updates and premium support both for the extension itself and the main Awesome Support plugin.When to consider using Awesome SupportAwesome Support is a great solution for those who need deep integration with WordPress and WooCommerce, and dont necessarily want to have to sign up for a third-party support tool.ConclusionGood client relations are the bedrock of any e-commerce operation that wishes to succeed. Failure to get on board with customer relations could see your reputation take a hit, and your sales tumble.The three WooCommerce support extensions were featured provide you with all o f the necessary tools to achieve good customer service. Lets take one final look at each of them, and their best features:Help Scout: Lets you handle support tickets for orders and general inquiries through posts.Freshdesk: Enables you to offer  support using regular tickets and VoIP calls, and provide a community for your team.Awesome Support: Provides good integration with WooCommerce products and orders, and also lets customers submit tickets through their main user panel on your site.Are there any other WooCommerce support extensions that you would personally  recommend? Share them with everyone else in the comments section below!

Monday, November 25, 2019

Writting The Satire Example

Writting The Satire Example Writting The Satire – Coursework Example The Ambitious Increase in Missed H.O.R.S.E shots The reports from a local public basketball court on Monday indicated an increasing trend of missed shots of two young H.O.R.S.E young players. Earlier sources reported multiple dramatic three-pointer misses from shorter distances. The misses from short, obvious distances points at lack of talent in the field of play hence, the young men should relocate to different sports. The missed shots looked funny according to the multiple fans that sacrificed their precise time to come and witness the match. The humiliation became evident on the faces of fans who could only dream about victory for their team.Despite the humiliating misses, the players stepped further back on the court and took four consecutive turns launching half court shots. Unfortunately, all the four shots went astray as it is the normal case in the players’ profiles. The shots indicated the players’ perfection in the misses with the ball bouncing back the backb oard without even touching the rim. With the negative reports, it is clear that any professional coach should not accord a slot for them in their teams unless the team objects to lose. Every fan devoted to the team shifted mindset from wishing the team success to anticipating loss that they became sure about.The young players are a symbol of poor performance hence their inclusion in a team is a direct booking to lose a basketball competition. Just like other star players, the two players called out Swish prior to a number of their shots. A recorded instance is when trying to hit an impossible one hundred-turnaround fade away from the baseline (The Onion editors 1). The two players are best and at their pick only during individual shows when there are no opponents, fantasy basketball suits them most and not a reality show. At press time, one of the wasteful players confidently walked behind the basket for an unsuccessful attempt at striking the ball over the backboard. The futile sho ts are a usual practice and art associated with the young players, and every fan anticipates it every time they attempt on a shot.The Onion editors.† Missed H.O.R.S.E Shots Getting Increasingly Ambitious.† The Onion Newspaper 16 Feb 2015. Print.

Friday, November 22, 2019

W6 Legal Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

W6 Legal Discussion - Essay Example In effect, taxes are in place to ensure that people stay responsible and give back to society from what society gives to them. On this basis, it becomes very questionable to think of taxing organizations such as non-profit health institutions whose sole approach to doing business is to help the people within their territories instead of making profits. As the adage is said, unto him much is given, much is required. However, these non-profit hospitals make no profits, based on which they will have to produce any taxes. Apart from the fact that non-profit hospitals do not make any profits based on which they will be taxed, it is also important to realize the fact that these hospitals make their contributions to society through the low cost and in some cases free medical service they provide (Walker, 2005). Because the fundamental wisdom behind the need to have taxes is to ensure that citizens become responsible to their countries, it will be argued that the efforts and activities of these hospitals are contributing and responsible enough for them not to be taxed. Consequently, the idea of tax exemption for non-profit hospitals is strongly supported. Stuart and Showalter (2011) acknowledged that in the administration of health institutions, monetary strength is very crucial. What this means is that at every point in time, the hospitals must be in a position to have sufficient funding to run their internal management affairs. Based on this understanding, an idea to tax the hospitals that are not for profit would only be a means of further depriving the hospitals from becoming financially independent. Having said this, the need for there to be sufficient scrutiny of the non-profit hospitals to ensure that they live up to the reasons for which they are tax exempted will be advocated. It is important that there will be sufficient auditing to ensure that hospitals do not take advantage of the country in the name of

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Peter's Declaration to Alexei Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Peter's Declaration to Alexei - Essay Example This declaration in question partakes of the conventions of the ethical will, a didactic literary genre popular with Russian moralists of all political persuasions. However, instead of actually giving some moral and practical advice to Alexei, Peter decides to deprive him of his right to the inheritance of the throne. Peter I, though, does give reasons behind his attitude toward his son, one important issue being that Alexei does not even care to listen to him regarding the military affairs although they should be grateful to the military for being in the better position they were in now as compared to the previous times. It is apparent that Peter I felt that the art of war is something that should be known by every young man. He felt that it is the only way through which they can learn about order and defense and in Peter’s opinion, these two things are extremely important ingredients for there to be a well-ordered reign. Peter’s own son, however, failed in this area a nd it was his decision to disinherit him as he is of no use to the kingdom he would be getting after Peter I. Peter I felt that Alexei cannot rule without having the know-how of such things. Thus, without any hesitation, Peter gave his son the status of a lazy slave and made him appear as a good for nothing lad who can never make into this world. Peter, I was sad that he had not been able to change his son and make something out of him though he had tried every kind of action, including verbal and physical beatings and scolding.

Monday, November 18, 2019

Social Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social Entrepreneurship - Essay Example It is antithetical to innovation, too political, wasteful, inefficient, and bureaucratic. Dees thinks that counting on independent social entrepreneurs provides society with more opportunities at a lower risk. Social entrepreneurs tend to be more inventive when compared to government in finding solutions to problems since they respond to failures by the government by creation of parallel tracks while inventing new models, which improve public, institutional performance. By that, he means that social entrepreneurs play a crucial role in supplementing or complementing government functions. Dees also feels that the use of charity as a means of dealing with poverty cannot be relied on since it avoids dealing with the real problem. Consequently, he believes that social entrepreneurs build sustainable refinement rather than offer temporary relief by use of charity. In Taking Social Entrepreneurship Seriously, J. Gregory Dees (2007, p. 25) writes, â€Å"While this focus on government as a social problem solver has led to some notable successes, such as increased access to education and health care for many, the experience also revealed the limits of government as the vehicle for social problem solving†. ... Social entrepreneurs do not place a limit on their activities because of the available resources. Rather, they first focus on the opportunity, then think about its implementation later. This is in contrast to the government administrative mindset, which is dependent on budget constraints that derail the planning processes and offer priority to projects, which are ready to go. Entrepreneurs mainly focus on developing their entrepreneurial idea, then start thinking of how to acquire the money to finance the venture. An entrepreneur willing to drill a borehole in Africa devotes time to identifying the area most in need, gets the residents involved, sets the wheels in motion, then finally looks for resources. On the other hand, government will have to fit in the project in its already stretched budget, which may see it given decreased priority. Social entrepreneurship came about, in part, because of the disappointment faced by entrepreneurs with projects run by the government. Recently, an Indian bank, Ecobank started offering savings for very low-income citizens after its partnership with government to offer credit, slowed down because of the government’s bureaucratic and rigid laws and regulations. Ecobank felt that private for-profit ventures have the ability to stimulate increased innovation and economic growth. Another issue that interests me and I would like to discuss from this article is that Dees (2007, p. 27) writes, â€Å"They aim to create sustainable improvements and are willing to draw on self-interest, as well as compassion to do it†. That is to say, social entrepreneurs, through motivation by self-interest, give their charity in order to establish

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Concurrent Execution of Database

Concurrent Execution of Database Question 1: a) What is meant by concurrent execution of database in a multi-user system? Discuss why concurrency control is needed giving a suitable example. How the concept of Time stamp based and validation is based Protocols used in concurrency control. Ans:- Multiple transactions are allowed to run concurrently in the system. Concurrent execution of database is meant by execution of database in parallel. I.e. each transaction must behave in isolation. This means that the concurrent execution does not result an inconsistent state. Ensuring consistency in spite of concurrent execution of transactions requires is very complex Advantages are: increased processor and disk utilization, leading to better transaction throughput 4 E.g. one transaction can be using the CPU while another is reading from or writing to the disk reduced average response time for transactions: short transactions need not wait behind long ones. Timestamp Protocol: Timestamp is a unique identifier to identify a transaction. Timestamp can be considered to be as the transaction start time. It determines the concurrent execution such that the timestamp determines the serializability order. Time stamp holds two timestamp values: W-timestamp() is the largest time-stamp of any transaction that executed write() successfully. R-timestamp () is the largest time-stamp of any transaction that executed read() successfully. Suppose that transaction Ti issues write (Q). If TS (Ti) < R-timestamp (Q), then the value of Q that Ti is producing was needed previously, and the system assumed that that value would never be produced. Hence, the write operation is rejected, and Ti is rolled back. If TS (Ti) < W-timestamp (Q), then Ti is attempting to write an obsolete value of Q. Hence, this write operation is rejected, and Ti is rolled back. Otherwise, the write operation is executed, and W-timestamp(Q) is set to TS(Ti).The timestamp-ordering protocol guarantees serializability since all the arcs in the precedence graph are of the form. Timestamp protocol ensures freedom from deadlock as no transaction ever waits. Validation Protocol: The optimistic concurrency control techniques also known as validation or certification techniques, no checking is done while the transaction is executing. Several methods use the validation technique. Execution of transaction Ti is done in three phases. Read and execution phase: Transaction Ti writes only to temporary local variables Validation phase: Transaction Ti performs a validation test to determine if local variables can be written without violating serializability. Write phase: If Ti is validated, the updates are applied to the database; otherwise, Ti is rolled back. The three phases of concurrently executing transactions can be interleaved, but each transaction must go through the three phases in that order. Each transaction Ti has 3 timestamps Start(Ti) : the time when Ti started its execution Validation(Ti): the time when Ti entered its validation phase Finish(Ti) : the time when Ti finished its write phase This protocol is useful and gives greater degree of concurrency if probability of conflicts is low. That is because the serializability order is not pre-decided and relatively less transactions will have to be rolled back. Question 2: Why does deadlock occur in concurrent execution of transaction where locking scheme is followed? How can you detect deadlock in database system? How is the problem of deadlock resolved? Explain with the help of an example. Ans: Although locks prevent serious data inconsistencies but their use may lead to a major problem. The schedule may create deadlocks. A database deadlock is caused when two transactions wait for each other to unlock data. Deadlocks can be managed by using deadlock detection and prevention techniques. A deadlock is a condition that occurs when two transactions wait for each other to unlock data. Deadlocks occur when two transactions T1 and T2 exist in the following mode: T1 locks data item X and it needs to access Y while Y is locked by T2 T2 locks data item Y and it needs to access X while X is locked by T1 If T1 has not found unlocked data item Y and T2 needs Y, T2 cannot begin, if T2 has not unlocked data item X and T1 needs X, T1 cannot continue. Consequently T1 and T2 wait indefinitely, each waiting for the other to unlock the required data item. Three basic techniques exist to control deadlocks:- Deadlock prevention Deadlock detection Deadlock avoidance Deadlock prevention:- A transaction requesting a new lock is aborted if there is a possibility that a deadlock can occur. If the transaction is aborted, all the changes made by this transaction are rolled back, and all locks obtained by the transaction are released. The transaction is then rescheduled for execution. Deadlocks prevention works because it avoids the condition that leads to deadlock. In deadlock prevention, timed out schemes are used. Deadlock detection:- The DBMS periodically test the database for deadlocks. If a deadlock is found one of the transactions is aborted and the other transaction continues. The aborted transaction will be rescheduled for execution later on. The system uses wait- for graph. The system is in deadlock state if and only if the wait-for graph has a cycle. Deadlock avoidance:- The transaction must obtain all the locks it needs before it can be executed. This technique avoids rollback of conflicting transaction by requiring that locks be obtained in succession. The serial lock assignment required in deadlock avoidance increases transaction response. Example:- Deadlock checking occurs when a transaction has waited 30 seconds; no lock wait timeouts occur. Question 3: What is two phase locking? Describe with help of an example. Will two phase locking result in serialisable schedule? Will two phase locking result in deadlock? Justify your answer with the help of an example Ans: Two phase locking defines how transactions acquire and relinquish locks. Two phase locking gurantees serializability but it does not prevent deadlocks. The two phases are: Growing phase in which a transaction acquires all the required locks without unlocking any data. Shrinking phase in which a transaction releases all locks and cannot obtain any new lock. The two-phase locking protocol is governed by the following rules: Two transactions cannot have conflicting locks. No unlock operation can precede a lock operation in the same transaction. No data are affected until all locks are obtained that is until the transaction is in its locked point. Yes, two phase locking will result in deadlock because when mutual blocking between transactions occurs then it results deadlock. When deadlock occur, the execution of these transaction cannot be completed. So deadlock need to be resolved for completion of these transactions. Example:- In this example, the transaction acquires all the locks it needs until it reaches its locked point. When the locked point is reached is reached, the data are modified to confirm to the transaction requirements. Finally, the transaction is completed as it releases all of the lock it acquired in the first phase. Question 4: When do we use Log based recovery technique? Explain the write ahead log strategy for recovery in a centralized DBMS, with the help of an example. Ans: It is mostly used to structure for recoding database modifications. In a log based recovery a a log file is maintained for recovery purpose. Log file is a sequence of log records. There are two techniques for log based recovery. Deferred database modification: it ensures transaction atomicity by recording all database modifications in the log, but deferring the execution of all write operations of transactions until it is partially committed. Immediate database modification: it allows database modification to be output to the database while the transaction is still in the active state. The Write Ahead log is the basic rule that ensures that a record of every change to the database is available while attempting to recover from a crash. That is if a transaction makes a change and is committed, then the no force approach means that some of the changes may have not been written to the disk at the time of crash. Without any record of changes there is no way to ensure that the changes of a committed transaction survive crashes. For this before writing a page to the disk every update log record that describes a change to the page must be in a stable storage Question 5: Assume that the Railway reservation system is implemented using an RDBMS. What are the concurrency control measures one has to take, in order to avoid concurrency related problems in the above system? How can the deadlock be avoided in this system? How can we implement recovery techniques in such a system? Ans: When several transactions execute concurrently in the database, however there is a chance, the isolation property may no longer be preserved. To ensure that it is, the system must control the interaction among the concurrent transactions; this control is achieved through one of a variety of mechanisms called concurrency-control schemes. TYPES OF CONCURRENCY CONTROL SCHEME Lock-Based Protocols Timestamp-Based Protocols Validation-Based Protocols TO AVOID DEADLOCK: To ensure that no cyclic waits can occur by ordering the requests for locks. Deadlock recovery, and performs transaction rollback instead of waiting for a lock, whenever the wait could potentially result in a deadlock. DEADLOCK RECOVERY TECHNIQUE- To maintain information about the current allocation of data items to transactions, as well as any outstanding data item requests. Provide an algorithm that uses this information to determine whether the system has entered a deadlock state. Recover from the deadlock when the detection algorithm determines that deadlock exists. Question 6: How can we use the concept of shadow paging in database recovery of a real time application? Ans: It is an alternative to log-based recovery techniques. It may require fewer disk accesses but it is hard to extend paging to allow multiple concurrent transactions. The idea is to maintain two page tables during the life of a transaction: the current page table and the shadow page table. When the transaction starts current and page tables are identical. The shadow page is never changed during the life of the transaction. The current page is updated with each write operation. Each table entry points to a page on the disk. When the transaction is committed the shadow page entry becomes a copy of the current page table entry and the disk block with the old data is released. If the shadow is stored in nonvolatile memory and a system crash occurs, then the shadow page table is copied to the current page table. This guarantees that the shadow page table will point to the database pages corresponding to the state of the database prior to any transaction that was active at the time of the crash, making aborts automatic. It is used as an improvement to the shadow copy technique. The key idea of shadow paging is to maintain two page tables during the life of a transaction. Shadow paging helps in better recovery from crashes and also it does not require any undo/redo technique. The disadvantage of shadow paging is that it changes the disk address of the current page table and also copies the actual data block from the RAM to the hard disk output operation. There are drawbacks to the shadow-page technique: Commit overhead. The commit of a single transaction using shadow paging requires multiple blocks to be output the current page table, the actual data and the disk address of the current page table. Log-based schemes need to output only the log records. Data fragmentation. Shadow paging causes database pages to change locations. Garbage collection Each time that a transaction commits, the database pages containing the old version of data changed by the transactions must become inaccessible. Such pages are considered to be garbage since they are not part of the free space and do not contain any usable information. Periodically it is necessary to find all of the garbage pages and add them to the list of free pages. This process is called garbage collection and imposes additional overhead and complexity on the system.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

My Definition of Terrorism :: Terrorism, Terrorists, 2015

To me, terrorism is the use of violent actions to provoke fear or terror in a population for the purpose of spreading a message. I agree with Moeller in that terrorism is distinguished from other forms of violence in that â€Å"The victims and the intended audience of a terrorist act are not the same,†1 and â€Å"the psychological impact of a terrorist act is intended to be greater than the physical damage caused. The goal of terrorism is to send a message, not defeat the enemy.†2 Additionally, in regards to Moeller’s questions of whether terrorism is a tactic or ideology, terrorism is purely a tactic among many others, not an ideology at all. I do not believe that actions can be crimes or acts of war. Those are purely interpretations of those reacting to events. In some jurisdictions, terrorism is a crime. At least one nation has chosen to consider it an act of war. I consider these judgments to be separate from the definition of the action. Similarly, the usage of transnational pre-emptive force is irrelevant to a definition. I disagree with Moeller in her assertion that terrorism is targeted at civilians. Terrorism can be targeted at military troops as well, as they are a population. Whenever the nature of an attack is to invoke fear over causing direct damage, it qualifies as terrorism. My definition is broad, encompassing many actions not always considered terrorism, and seeks to avoid entangling terrorism with other topics. Works Cited: Moeller, Susan. 2009. Packaging Terrorism; Co-opting the News for Politics and Profit. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Describe the definition of nursing as put forward by the American Nurses Association. How does it address the metaparadigm theories of nursing? Essay

The ANA defines nursing as â€Å"the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations† (American Nurses Association website, n.d.). The 4 metaparadigms of nursing are person, environment, health/illness, and nursing. All 4 are interrelated and describe the central interest of the nursing discipline (Gunther, 2011). The ANA addresses the 4 concepts in its definition of nursing. The person is central to the ANA definition. Nursing considers a person as a whole and not only the present illness. The nursing process allows a nurse to focus on a patient as an individual. In defining nursing, the ANA addresses the concept of The Person when referring to â€Å"the individuals, families, communities, and populations† (ANA website, n.d.). By collecting pertinent data, nurses identify patient’s current responses and the ability of that person to manage his/her care, and are then able to make clinical judgments about individual, family, or communities’ response to health problems or life processes. One of the six essential features of nursing put forth by the ANA is â€Å"attention to the range of human experiences and responses to health and illness within the physical and social environments† (ANA website, n.d.). Nursing is concerned with human responses as they relate to the person’s environment whether it is in the hospital or in the community. With the help of the nursing process, nurses assess the person’s environment through the collection of subjective and objective data, perform risk assessments, identify safety hazards, and implement safety practices that will improve the patient’s health status and prevent further injury or illness. The first two concepts are closely related to the third concept: Health/Illness. It is also addressed in the ANA’s definition of nursing. Nurses use critical thinking to promote and restore health, and prevent illness. Through evidence-based practice, nurses are able to provide scientific rationales for the nursing interventions chosen to reach appropriate patient goals. Emphasis is often placed on patient education, the basic purpose of which is to provide patients and their families with the necessary skills that will  enable them to optimize their health and functioning (Taylor, Lillis, LeMone, & Lynn, 2011). The fourth concept refers to the actions a nurse takes when providing patient care (Gunther, 2011). This concept incorporates within itself the first three and it is embodied in the ANA definition of nursing as a whole. Nurses use a unique knowledge base to diagnose and treat a wide range of human responses to a variety of factors, including not only the physiologic but also the sociologic, spiritual, and environmental factors. Nurses establish and carry out a plan of care for each person individually through the use of well-established actions to facilitate health and healing. References American Nurses Association website. (n.d.). www.nursingworld.org Gunther, M. (2011). Theories and frameworks for professional nursing practice. In J. L. Creasia, & E. E. Friberg (Eds.), Conceptual foundations: The bridge to professional nursing practice (5th ed.). Retrieved from https://evolve.elsevier.com Taylor, C. R., Lillis, C., LeMone, P., & Lynn, P. (2011). Fundamentals of nursing: The art and science of nursing care (7th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Japan vs. US economy essays

Japan vs. US economy essays The primary purpose of the economic activity is to benefit consumer while maximizing wealth creation; while the distribution of that wealth is of secondary importance. 1. U.S economy is approaching Neoclassical model in which individuals are assumed to maximize their own private interest, and business enterprise are expected to maximize profits which result in a powerful proconsumption bias and insensitivity to the social welfare impact of economic activities. - market are competitive and competition should be promoted through antitrust and other policies. - almost any economic activity is permitted - economy is open to the outside world 2. US economy also considered as a system of managerial capitalism. The economy was transformed from a proprietary capitalism to one dominated by large oligopolistic corporations. 1. Authority over the economy is alienated among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government and between the federal government and the fifty states for example the responsibility of financial system is shared by the Treasury, the federal reserve and several other powerful and independent federal agencies which strongly affected by actions of the legislative and judicial branches of the government. In addition, the fifty states contest the authority of the federal government over economic policy and implement important policies of their own. 2. Another influence of the American state in the economy is the tension between private and public sector. Not only does the adversarial relationship between gov. and business in the US make cooperation very difficult, but their mutual suspicions are reflected in American politics. Whereas political conservative reject any strong role for the state in the economy, political liberals are fearful that private business interest will capture government program in order to feather their own nest, which consequently will produce po ...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Japan Council for Sustainable Development

Japan Council for Sustainable Development Free Online Research Papers Even though the small country of Japan only occupies 0.3% of total land area and 2.3 % of our worlds total population, it receives about 20% of the worlds annual shipment carriages. This massive economy is only a recent phenomena brought about in the last 100 years. Although economic growth is good for a country it does bring about problems to the environment. Because of this, and Agenda 21, the Japan Council for Sustainable Development was established. The councils aim is to encourage and facilitate communication between the members concerning major issues of sustainable development. Before the council was even established Japan created the Basic environmental law which is the basis for all of japanese environmental policy. The law has a couple of basics for environmental policy. The enjoyment and succession of environmental blessings, creation of a sustainable society which imposes less burden on the environment, and international cooperation for the conservation of the global environment are three main principles for environmental policy. The National Agenda 21 Action Plan and the Basic Environmental Plan are two proposals devised to help make strong efforts towards effectively implementing and following Agenda 21 in Japan. The Basic Environmental Plan prescribes four long-term objectives which are environmentally-sound material cycle, harmonious coexistence, public participation, and international activities. An environmentally-sound material cycle is fostered by building a socio-economic system where environmental load from human activities is minimized. The relationship between humankind and the diverse wildlife and the natural environment is what Japan strives for to create a harmonious existence. Public Participation is a key to long-term effectiveness of Agenda 21. Participation of all members of a society in environmental conservation activities is major. If the public chooses not to follow the plan then the plan is nothing more than ideas with no actions so it is very important to get the public to agree and participate in environmental conservation. The import-export ratio in Japan is about 8 to 1, which is way higher than any other country. 500 million tons of industrial waste and 50 million tons of house hold wastes are made in Japan. Of the 500 tons of industrial waste 1/3 is recycled while others are incinerated and left to sit in land hills. Because of the huge amounts of wastes that flow into Japan a huge quantity of wastes are also made. Environmental Law in Japan seems to aim Japan in the right direction, but with such massive amounts of wastes produces it is hard to see immediate results. Without all the proposals by Japanese environmental law makers going as planned results will be hard to come by. Research Papers on Japan Council for Sustainable DevelopmentPETSTEL analysis of IndiaRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andDefinition of Export QuotasInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfGenetic EngineeringOpen Architechture a white paperThe Project Managment Office SystemMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever Product

Monday, November 4, 2019

How can Tesco fulfill its need to adapt to changes in its workforce Essay

How can Tesco fulfill its need to adapt to changes in its workforce - Essay Example The company earned revenue of ?64.826 billion as on 2013 from its 6351 stores across the world. In terms of profit it is the second largest player and in terms of revenue it is the third largest after Walmart and Carrefour, who are the main competitors of the brand. For carrying out its operations, Tesco employs people both in store oriented and non store oriented jobs. For the stores it requires staff for a variety of activities like customer care staff, inventory managers, supervisors, stock takers etc (Humby, Hunt and Phillips, 2006, p.39). For successful distribution of products the company needs people who are well equipped with logistic management skills. The corporate office has people performing mainly the senior management roles like Finance Management, Marketing Management, Human Resource Management, Accounts Department, Production Control, Information Technology Department and Legal Departments. Tesco aspires to make sure that all functions work in harmony to steer its bus iness goals. In order to do that, the company has to ensure that it employs the right people in the accurate work at the correct time. To accomplish this, the company has structured a method for staffing and selecting employees for managerial as well as operational roles (Argyris and Schon, 1978, p.987). Workforce planning Tesco like every successful organisation is involved in the process of planning which entails an analysis of the prospective needs of the company in terms of staff. They need to analyse how many more staff that they need, what skills they should possess and where should they be recruited from and put into operation (Hackman and Craig, 2008, p.543). It permits the company to map how these wants is to be met by indulging in recruitment and training. Tesco essentially needs to plan ahead of its inception of the work. A dynamic organisation hires new employees on a daily basis for all the variety of activities that the people in the organisation perform. Vacancies are created in the organisation when the company opens up new stores or expands in the present location. Positions are also opened due to employee attrition in the company. They might switch jobs or retire from the company after the end of their tenure of service. When an employee of one department gets promoted to a higher rank the previous position also needs to be filled. New openings are also created when the company changes processes or adapts to a new technology. This entire exercise is done for both management and non management position. The objective behind this is to understand the demand for workforce in a particular year for various departments. The reports at the end of every quarter gives an estimate of how many people would be required for the operations and accordingly Tesco manipulates the needs of staffing as per necessity of departments (Ravasi, and Schultz, 2006,p.654). By this the company can buy some time for planning and flexibility for meeting the demands of the employees. It helps the company in achieving the organisational goals and short terms objectives as well (Cummings, and Worley, p.67). They consider it as Talent Planning which in turn helps in motivating the people to do their work with efficiency and precision. They also encourage the staff to progress in their careers. The job descriptions for the various positions have to be free from any ambiguity and each person needs to understand his work and know his scope of action. The appraisal

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Strategic Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Strategic Management - Assignment Example Its manufacturing division has 42 food plants and it operates in over 750 stores directly or through subsidiaries (Kroger, 2011). Vision, Mission & Values of Kroger The Kroger Co., one of the leaders in the retail industry has a strong vision and mission statement with people being the first priority in its business. The vision statement of the company should be ‘It’s all for the people’. The company’s main focus is serving the customer, the people of the society with different types of supports for the community. The core value for the firm is to do business with honesty and telling the truth to the associates and customers. With its integration of a mix cultured people in the workplace the company respect the values and opinions off all its employees (Kroger, 2011). To be the leader in the retail industry with its variety of services The Kroger Co. is also involved in social community activities because they believe that it’s the people for whom th ey work so they must respect and care for the community. Every year the company invests on hundreds of communities for various social causes for the betterment of the society. In the past 3 years the total investment is around $8 million in the areas of education, diversity, community needs, women’s health and fight against hunger campaigns. Kroger understands its importance as it is also beneficial for the business process. Kroger being one of the leaders who wants to be the top ranked retailer needs to be in the mind of the people with the positive impacts from its social activities served towards the community (Kroger-a, 2011, p.2). Internal and External Analysis SWOT Analysis SWOT is the acronym for the internal Strength and Weakness for the company and the external Opportunities and the Threats from other firms. Through this technique the company understands its situation in the market and its possible opportunities and the threats from the market. The company’s m ain aim is to maximize the strength and opportunities while minimizing the weakness and the threats. Kroger with about 2486 supermarket and multi-departmental stores over 31 states has a strong position in the US market. It mainly concentrates in the grocery and the food retailing sector. With its attractive location and variety of products and competing price, Kroger holds a strong market position. But the company faces intense competition from player in the retail market like Wal-Mart Stores, The Home Depot and Costco Companies. On the other hand the consolidation in the food market segment has a big competition in the US retail chain market and affects the market share and profit margin. Food contamination is another issue which can harm a brands image. Expansion of the company in different sectors like the finance market is a great opportunity for the firm. The personal finance brand of Kroger helps the people to avail an easy way to buy through grocery banking. As a threat the slowing economy and the higher level of inflation affecting the food industry as it increases the transport cost and thus affecting the price of food. Cost sensitive customers may shift to low cost food products which will affect the profit margin. Figure 1: SWOT Analysis (Source: Author’s creation) PESTLE Analysis Pestle analysis is the tool to understand the market scenario and the external

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Health Promotion Module , NAPIER UNIVERSITY , Coursework

Health Promotion Module , NAPIER UNIVERSITY , - Coursework Example One has to describe the whole situation openly so the situation is cleared to everyone. Then it has to be analyzed that what happened was done in correct manner and finally it is evaluated that whether it could have been done in a better manner. All three critical thought processes of reflection ensure better learning from an individual’s past experience (Larrivee, 2000, pp. 293--307). Difference between reflection  in  action and  reflection  on  action Reflection in action is the process of thinking before the task has been done. All the consequences are kept in mind before taking first step of task. Reflection on action is opposite to reflection in action because here a person thinks about the act that has been done and he learns from his experience. In this kind of reflection people feel the situation more realistically and can express feeling more effectively (Keyte and Harris et al., 2012, pp. 155--160). Gibbs model of reflection compare with the Atkins and Mur phy model Gibbs model of reflection is very clear and includes description of situation, feelings of the person facing situation, analysis of whole situation and then evaluates the whole situation leading to new strategies if the particular situation encounters again. While in Atkins and Murphy model awareness to situation is necessary to continue the effective process for description, analysis and evaluation and then a person make further action plans. For the same reason I would prefer to use Atkins and Murphy model because prior knowledge is always better to know the new situation. One must know their comfort level of their feelings and thought [4]. TASK 2 - Evidence-based approach to global health promotion Summary Poverty is biggest evil and for many years humankind is working to eradicate it completely but there comes hurdles that haven’t made it successful like in the case of Africa where much aid has been given but have not shown a significant change (Van Der Berg, 20 08). The speaker Esther Duflo highlighted three problems and there solutions in the discussion, according to her three are three main problems which are as follows: Effective immunization When the speaker started her work in Udaipur Rajistan only one percent children were immunized. She observed that not only providing centers to people is enough but there must be some incentives that encourage them to immunize their kids on time. The strategy was implemented and showed a 6 times increase in the rate of immunization (Drewnowski and Specter, 2004, pp. 6--16). Effective use of net beds During the same case study they found that people were offered bed nets for free and after a year they purchased them because they were used to it unlikely those who did not get for free. Send children to school According to the speaker, only by curing intestinal worm problems a 30% increase in the population can be seen in children going to school (Nodhj?lp, 2013). The speaker carries all statistics an d shows very effectively by telling that education is the cheapest mode to eradicate poverty. As we all know poverty is root of evil. It creates unavoidable circumstances, when someone doesn’t have food to eat or someone’s children are dying he acts violently and here comes need of education

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Natural monopoly Essay Example for Free

Natural monopoly Essay I believe that times change and as they, change rules and regulations must adapt to the times. Therefore, the treatment of the different industries must represent the different industries as they grow. I do not think the Telephone and Broadcast should never have or ever be considered a â€Å"Natural Monopoly†. The concept of natural monopoly presents a challenging public policy dilemma. On the one hand, a natural monopoly implies that efficiency in production would be better served if a single firm supplies the entire market. On the other hand, in the absence of any competition the monopoly holder will be tempted to exploit his natural monopoly power in order to maximize its profits. A natural monopoly is defined in economics as an industry where the fixed cost of the capital goods is so high that it is not profitable for a second firm to enter and compete. There is a natural reason for this industry being a monopoly, namely that the economies of scale require one, rather than several, firms. Small-scale ownership would be less efficient. Natural monopolies are typically utilities such as water, electricity, and natural gas. It would be very costly to build a second set of water and sewerage pipes in a city. Water and gas delivery service has a high fixed cost and a low variable cost. Electricity is now being deregulated, so the generators of electric power can now compete. But the infrastructure, the wires that carry the electricity, usually remain a natural monopoly, and the various companies send their electricity through the same grid. Cable as a Natural Monopoly Nearly every community in the United States allows only a single cable company to operate within its borders. Since the Boulder decision [4] in which the U. S. Supreme Court held that municipalities might be subject to antitrust liability for anticompetitive acts, most cable franchises have been nominally nonexclusive but in fact do operate to preclude all competitors. The legal rationale for municipal regulation is that cable uses city-owned streets and rights-of-way; the economic rationale is the assumption that cable is a natural monopoly. The theory of natural monopoly holds that because of structural conditions that exist in certain industries, competition between firms cannot endure; and whenever these conditions exist, it is inevitable that only one firm will survive. Thus, regulation is necessary to dilute the ill-effects of the monopoly. [5] Those who assert that cable television is a natural monopoly focus on its economies of scale; that is, its large fixed costs whose duplication by multiple companies would be inefficient and wasteful. Thus, competitive entry into the market should be proscribed because it is bound to be destructive. The Competitive Reality 1. A skeptic hearing exhortations that cable television is a natural monopoly that should be locally regulated could have some questions at this point. First, if cable is a natural monopoly, why do we need to guarantee it with a franchise? Economists Bruce Owen and Peter Greenhalgh argue persuasively that given economies of scale, if a cable company is responsive and efficient in its pricing and service quality then there will be little incentive for competitors to enter, and no need for an exclusionary franchise policy. [9] Thus, if entry restrictions are necessary to arrest competition, the industry by definition is not a natural monopoly. 2. Second, if cable is a natural monopoly, is it necessarily a local monopoly? Some observers use the terms interchangeably, but there is no evidence that economic laws respect municipal boundaries. Given large fixed costs, does it make sense to award a local franchise to one company when another already has facilities in an adjacent community? Yet such wasteful duplication, as the natural monopoly proponents would call it, occurs frequently under the franchise system. Local franchises make no sense in a true natural monopoly setting. 3. These questions, however, go to the heart of natural monopoly theory itself, a doctrine that is under increasing attack. [10] In the face of crumbling conventional wisdom in this area, the burden should be on the natural monopoly proponents to demonstrate that competition is not possible, and further, that regulation is necessary. Such a demonstration will prove impossible in the cable context. Cable is both extremely competitive, facing both direct and indirect market challenges, and, in any event, is better left unregulated. For many decades, economic textbooks have held up the telecommunications industry as the ideal model of natural monopoly. A natural monopoly is said to exist when a single firm is able to control most, if not all, output and prices in a given market due to the enormous entry barriers and economies of scale associated with the industry. More specifically, a market is said to be naturally monopolistic when one firm can serve consumers at lower costs than two or more firms (Spulber 1995: 31). For example, telephone service traditionally has required laying an extensive cable network, constructing numerous calls switching stations, and creating a variety of support services, before service could actually be initiated. Obviously, with such high entry costs, new firms can find it difficult to gain a toehold in the industry. Those problems are compounded by the fact that once a single firm overcomes the initial costs, their average cost of doing business drops rapidly relative to newcomers. The telephone monopoly, however, has been anything but natural. Overlooked in the textbooks is the extent to which federal and state governmental actions throughout this century helped build the ATT or Bell system monopoly. As Robert Crandall (1991: 41) noted, Despite the popular belief that the telephone network is a natural monopoly, the ATT monopoly survived until the 1980s not because of its naturalness but because of overt government policy. I hope that the above facts help support my beliefs that these industries should not be considered Natural Monopolies. These companies just executed and had better site than other in the same industry had. Today ATT is just as strong as it ever was. References Benjamin, S. M. , Lichtman, D. G. , Shelanski, H. , Weiser , P. (2006). FOUNDATIONS. In Telecommunications Law and Policy . (2nd ed. ). (pp. 437 469). Durham, NC : Carolina Academic Press. Foldvary, F. E. (1999). Natural Monopolies . The Progress Report. Retrieved January 9, 2012, from http://www. progress. org/fold74. htm Thierer , A. D. (1994). UNNATURAL MONOPOLY: CRITICAL MOMENTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BELL SYSTEM MONOPOLY . 14(2).

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Children and Self-Harm

Children and Self-Harm A new study reveals that young people are influenced to an alarming degree by videos they watch on the Internet. This can include videos of other teens in the act of injuring or harming themselves. According to MedPage Today, most such videos lack warnings or viewing restrictions, making them popular among young adults and teens. Researchers worry that such videos may encourage copycat behavior of self-harm in children. It is important for parents to be aware that some adolescents try to harm themselves due to emotional issues. This self-injuring behavior may include cutting, severe scratching, mutilating the skin with sharp objects, biting, poisoning, and more, and it occurs among 14 to 21 percent of children, teens, and young adults. Apart from the power of videos to sway their behavior, self-harm in children and young adults is linked to low self-esteem and depression, as well as other emotional health issues, such as bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Spotting the Warning Signs of Self-Harm in Your Child Children and teenagers who hurt themselves do so in secrecy, which is often the main indication that something is wrong. While it is normal among adolescents to pull away from parents when they are highly involved with friends or experiencing pressure, it is not normal for them to be physically and emotionally withdrawn for long periods of time. Though self-harming behavior can be dangerous, the actions do not include suicidal thoughts or attempts to end life. What are the red flags of self-injuring behavior? Could your child be doing this without you knowing? As a parent, it is important to know the following signs that your child may be self-injuring: Unexplained cuts or burn marks on different parts of the body, particularly on the arms, legs, and abdomen Presence of sharp objects, such as razors, blades, and knives, in your childs possession Prolonged periods of withdrawal or isolation, particularly in the bathroom or bedroom Changes in eating habits, such as deliberate self-starvation or binge eating Excessive exercising Wearing inappropriate clothing for the weather with the intention to hide the body marks Unhygienic practices, such as refusal to bathe or brush teeth Common Reasons Why Children Self-Harm It is estimated that around 10 percent of young people harm themselves at some point. Knowing the signs can help you understand the underlying origins and allow you to respond better. Self-harm in children is often an attempt to manage overwhelming emotional issues caused by the following: Social problems-may include bullying, academic difficulties, relationship conflicts with family or friends, sexual disorientation, cultural adjustments, etc. Traumatic experiences-may be in the form of physical or sexual abuse, death of a loved one, or a violent event such as an accident or an act of terrorism. Emotional causes-such as dissociative disorder, borderline personality disorder, or schizophrenia. These issues can cause intense feelings of anger, hopelessness, guilt, and self-hatred. If not addressed properly, the emotions can build up, triggering possible self-harm to release the pent-up feelings. Discovering Your Child Is Self-Injuring Learning that your child is engaging in self-harming behavior can be scary. Your initial reaction may be shock that your child is intentionally hurting himself or herself. You may also deny the behavior, as your memory conjures the image of a happy child, until the realization hits you that your child is in emotional distress. Its a valid feeling to be angry or frustrated with the fact that your child has lied or hid the truth from you. You may feel guilty for not noticing the change in your childs behavior or for disregarding it as part of the growing process. At the end of the day, you may try to grasp how your child feels to help you understand his or her condition better. Finally, you may blame yourself if you think you have not offered enough love and attention to your child. Help Is Available The good news is that self-harm can be treated with professional intervention. Resolving self-harm in children doesnt require hospitalization unless the conduct is so severe it endangers life. Self-harm is generally not a sign of suicidal intent, but a struggle to overcome emotional pain; thus, it takes counseling to treat self-harming behavior issues in children. Take the first step toward seeking help for your child at Carolina Counseling Services in Pittsboro, NC. One of the independently contracted counselors at CCS is the right-fit therapist to evaluate and help discover the root cause of your childs condition. Getting early help can be invaluable for your child to get over self-harm and get better. Call now to request an appointment.

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Tragedies Of Shakespeare :: essays research papers

The Tragedies Of Shakespeare "Your noble son is mad — ‘Mad' call I it, for to define true madness, What is't but to be nothing else but mad?" (Wells and Taylor, 665) In Act two, scene two of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Polonius uses these words to inform Hamlet's parents of their son's insanity. He then continues on, telling Gertrude and Claudius that the cause of this madness is lovesickness over his own daughter Ophelia (665). From the privileged perspective of the audience, we know that Polonius is mistaken and that Hamlet is far from insane, but rather, "playing mad" for a purpose of his own. Madness in Shakespearean plays, and in tragedies in particular, is rarely what it seems on the surface. Instead, both madness and the characters experiencing it are layered with meaning; like an onion, layer after layer can be peeled off, eventually allowing a glimpse at the core concealed within. Shakespeare's treatment of the character Hamlet is typically multi- faceted and complex—Hamlet appears insane, ostensibly over Ophelia, however, his madness is feigned—a cover for internal conflicts, rooted not in thwarted affection, but rather in desire to avenge his father's murder. Hamlet even goes so far as to say his apparent madness is an act when he says "I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw"(667). Shakespeare often used madness, either feigned or actual, as a teaching tool or vehicle to advance his plot. Sometimes this madness was feigned, as evidenced by Hamlet and Edgar (the legitimate son of Gloucester in The Tragedy of King Lear), but other times it was genuine insanity. Ophelia and Lady MacBeth are obvious examples of Shakespearean characters that have slipped into madness—Ophelia due to the loss of all those dear to her, and Lady MacBeth from guilt over the part she played in King Duncan's murder. In Hamlet, Ophelia's madness ultimately leads to her demise, and this, in turn, plays a part in Hamlet's willingness to engage in what will be his final battle. In this sense, it helps advance the play towards its climax. While Lady MacBeth's madness also leads to death, its focus is more on teaching than propelling the story to conclusion. While Lady MacBeth is initially seen as a cold, conscienceless, calculating woman, intent on advancing her husband politically (by any means necessary), her character changes as the play progresses. Early on in the play, she is full of ambition; indeed, upon reading MacBeth's letter, she complains about his nature and inaction: Yet do I fear thy nature, It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Acc491 Wk 4 Dq Questions

*What are some of the different types of sampling methods that are available to the auditor? * How does the auditor decide which method to use? How will the different methods affect the audit? The types of auditing samples are broken down into two different categories: statistical and non-statistical sampling. The purpose of auditing samples are designed to give the auditor the results he or she seeks, without having to completely audit 100% of the items within the audit population. Here are some of the different types of auditing samples broken out into the two categories: Statistical Sampling Methods: Random Sampling – Is an auditing method that basically means that all sampling units in the auditing population will have an equal chance of being selected for evaluation, or that no bias would have played a role in what was selected. It is also important the samples that have been selected are not able to re-sampled again. Systematic Sampling – Involves selecting sampling units using fixed intervals between selections, the first interval having a random start. This method is often referred to as interval sampling. This is because this method is where the auditor will take the number of sampling units in a population and divides this into the sample size to give a sampling interval. For example, if an auditor is auditing sales invoice where the sampling interval is 20, the auditor will determine a starting point for sampling and sample every 20th sales invoice thereafter. Non-Statistical Sampling Methods: {text:list-item} {text:list-item} What is the importance of defining the population when performing audit procedures? How will this affect the sample size? How will incorrectly defining the population affect the sampling unit? The auditing population is the whole set of data for auditors to test in order to reach their final auditing conclusion. Auditors need to determine a population in which to examine samples from for specific auditing objectives he or she wishes to complete. For example, if an auditors' goal was to test for overstatements of debtors, the auditing population could entail listing of debtors. However, if the auditor was to testing for overstatements of creditors, then the population would not be only be a listing of creditors, but, also require the auditor to look for subsequent disbursements, unpaid invoices, suppliers' statements, unmatched receiving reports, or other auditable populations that would provide evidence of potential understatements to creditors. When the auditor is designing the auditing samples, the auditor should consider the specific audit objectives he or she wishes to fulfill, the nature of the auditing population for which they wish to sample, as well as any other factors affecting the auditing samples size. The determination of an auditing samples size should require judgment of: Assurance required Tolerable and Expected Error (or Deviation Rate) Stratification Erroneously defining the auditing population can have an incredible affect on sample size as the auditor then has to choose a sample for conducting the audit. Auditors should select sample size in a way that the auditing sample can be anticipated to be a fair representative of the overall auditing population in respect of the uniqueness that is tested. If an auditing population has not been defined then the chance for errors increases the indistinctness of the results taken from the auditing sampling. Furthermore, if an auditing population itself has incorrectly been defined, the sampling unit will not give the anticipated results. These errors can formulate an incorrect conclusion by the auditor, there by defeating the initial purpose of the audit.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Atmosphere and Fossil Fuel Inputs Essay

1. Weather and Climate. Discuss the concept of energy/mass conservation as it pertains to the climate system. Be sure to address each component of the climate system in your example and feel free to use multiple examples if necessary to address each component. 2. Facts and Fiction. Explain the figure below. Be sure to address the three key components discussed in class as well as the overall (net) anthropogenic impacts on global warming. 3. Atmospheric Composition & Structure. Draw a diagram labeling the five atmospheric layers discussed in class as well as the ozone layer. On your diagram, list the significance of each layer. 4. Atmospheric Circulation. Calculate the residence time of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere given the figure of the carbon cycle below. You can assume that the ocean, soil, vegetation and fossil fuel inputs together make the rate. 5. Ozone. Compare and contrast the two types of ozone depletion. Be sure to discuss the cause(s) of each, the impacts of each and the location of each at a minimum.

Mongolia Facts, Religion, Language, and History

Mongolia Facts, Religion, Language, and History Mongolia takes pride in its nomadic roots. Befitting this tradition, there are no major cities in the country other than Ulaan Baatar, the Mongolian capital. Government Since 1990, Mongolia has had a multi-party parliamentary democracy. All citizens over the age of 18 can vote.  The head of state is the President, but executive power is shared with the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister nominates the Cabinet, which is approved by the legislature. The legislative body is called the Great Hural, which is made up of 76 deputies. Mongolia has a civil law system that is based on the laws of Russia and continental Europe.  The highest court is the Constitutional Court, which primarily hears questions of constitutional law. Population Mongolias population rose above three million in the 2010s. An additional four million ethnic Mongols live in Inner Mongolia, which is part of China. Approximately 94 percent of the population of Mongolia are ethnic Mongols, mainly from the Khalkha clan. About nine percent of the ethnic Mongols come from the Durbet, Dariganga, and other clans.  An estimated five percent of Mongolian citizens are members of Turkic peoples, primarily Kazakhs and Uzbeks. There are also tiny populations of other minorities, including Tuvans, Tungus, Chinese, and Russians, which number at less than one percent each. Languages Khalkha Mongol is the official language of Mongolia and the primary language of 90 percent of Mongolians. Other tongues used in Mongolia include different dialects of Mongolian, Turkic languages (such as Kazakh, Tuvan, and Uzbek), and Russian. Khalkha is written with the Cyrillic alphabet. Russian is the most common foreign language spoken in Mongolia, although both English and Korean are used as well. Mongolian Religion The vast majority of Mongolians, around 94 percent of the population, practice Tibetan Buddhism. The Gelugpa, or Yellow Hat, school of Tibetan Buddhism gained prominence in Mongolia during the 16th century. Six percent of the Mongolian population are Sunni Muslim, mainly members of the Turkic minorities.  Two percent of Mongolians are Shamanist, following the traditional belief system of the region. Mongolian Shamanists worship their ancestors and the clear blue sky. The total makeup of Mongolias religions is above 100 percent because some Mongolians practice both Buddhism and Shamanism. Geography Mongolia is a land-locked country sandwiched between Russia and China. It covers an area of about 1,564,000 square kilometers, making it roughly the size of Alaska. Mongolia is known for its steppe lands. These are the dry, grassy plains that support the traditional Mongolian herding lifestyle. Some areas of Mongolia are mountainous, however, while others are desert. The highest point in Mongolia is Nayramadlin Orgil, at 4,374 meters (14,350 feet) tall. The lowest point is Hoh Nuur, at 518 meters (1,700 feet) tall. Climate Mongolia has a harsh continental climate with very little rainfall and wide seasonal temperature variations. Winters are long and bitterly cold in Mongolia, with average temperatures in January hovering around -30 C (-22 F). Capital Ulaan Bataar is the coldest and windiest nation capital on Earth. Summers are short and hot, and most precipitation falls during the summer months. Rain and snowfall totals are only 20-35 cm (8-14 inches) per year in the north and 10-20 cm (4-8 inches) in the south. Nevertheless, freak snowstorms sometimes drop more than a meter (3 feet) of snow, burying livestock. Economy The economy of Mongolia depends upon mineral mining, livestock and animal products, and textiles. Minerals are a primary export, including copper, tin, gold, molybdenum, and tungsten. The currency of Mongolia is the tugrik. History Mongolias nomadic people have at times hungered for goods from settled cultures - items such as fine metal-work, silk cloth, and weapons. To get these items, the Mongols would unite and raid surrounding peoples. The first great confederation was the Xiongnu, organized in 209 B.C. The Xiongnu were such a persistent threat to Chinas Qin Dynasty that the Chinese began work on a massive fortification: the Great Wall of China. In 89 A.D., the Chinese defeated the Northern Xiongnu at the Battle of Ikh Bayan. The Xiongnu fled west, eventually making their way to Europe. There, they became known as the Huns. Other tribes soon took their place. First the Gokturks, then the Uighurs, the Khitans, and the Jurchens gained ascendancy in the region. Mongolias fractious tribes were united in 1206 A.D. by a warrior named Temujin, who became known as Genghis Khan. He and his successors conquered most of Asia, including the Middle East, and Russia. The Mongol Empires strength waned after the overthrow of their centerpiece, the Yuan Dynasty rulers of China, in 1368. In 1691, the Manchus, founders of Chinas Qing Dynasty, conquered Mongolia. Although the Mongols of Outer Mongolia retained some autonomy, their leaders had to swear an oath of allegiance to the Chinese emperor.  Mongolia was a province of China between 1691 and 1911, and again from 1919 to 1921. The present-day border between Inner (Chinese) Mongolia and Outer (independent) Mongolia was drawn in 1727 when Russia and China signed the Treaty of Khiakta.  As the Manchu Qing Dynasty grew weaker in China, Russia began to encourage Mongolian nationalism. Mongolia declared its independence from China in 1911 when the Qing Dynasty fell. Chinese troops recaptured Outer Mongolia in 1919, while the Russians were distracted by their revolution. However, Moscow occupied Mongolias capital at Urga in 1921, and Outer Mongolia became a Peoples Republic under Russian influence in 1924.  Japan invaded Mongolia in 1939 but was thrown back by Soviet-Mongolian troops. Mongolia joined the UN in 1961. At that time, relations between the Soviets and Chinese were souring rapidly. Caught in the middle, Mongolia tried to remain neutral.  In 1966, the Soviet Union sent a large number of ground forces into Mongolia to face down the Chinese. Mongolia began to expel its ethnic Chinese citizens in 1983. In 1987, Mongolia began to pull away from the USSR. It established diplomatic relations with the U.S. and saw large-scale pro-democracy protests in 1989 and 1990. The first democratic elections for the Great Hural were held in 1990, and the first presidential election in 1993.  In the decades after Mongolias peaceful transition to democracy began, the country developed slowly but steadily. Source Mongolia Population. WorldOMeters, 2019.